A report assessing the overall quality of Europe’s power grids and related services ranked Greece 10th for 2016 in terms of the number of planned and unplanned electricity supply cuts, which represents an improvement compared to previous years.
The countries listed above Greece in the planned and unplanned frequency of power cuts category were Slovenia, Malta, Romania, Croatia, Latvia, Ireland, Lithuania, Poland and the Czech Republic.
Greece was listed among nine of 26 EU member states not resorting to incentives and penalties for operators in terms of damage category, frequency and repair time.
On the contrary, Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the UK, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden were listed as the countries offering incentives to operators.
Incentives and penalties offered vary from country to country. Most countries do not apply any supply continuity plan at present, while Greece, along with Austria, Luxembourg and Romania, do not plan to do so.
Greece is also missing from the list of EU member states conducting power supply quality inspections.
Certain countries, including the Netherlands, offer consumers compensation amounts that are determined by the duration of unexpected power supply cuts. According to the Dutch compensation system, limited supply cut periods are permitted, but consumers are entitled to compensation for durations exceeding these limits. Other countries, such as Estonia and Romania, go a step further and even compensate preplanned power supply cuts.
Regulations in Greece limit power supply cut compensation to mid-voltage consumers if interruptions exceed 12 hours. Compensation amounts of 120 euros are automatically awarded to consumers in such cases.