Elica, a subsidiary formed by the Copelouzos group to promote the Greek-Egyptian GREGY Interconnector, promising transportation of Egyptian renewable energy production to Europe, plans to add Italy as a direct recipient in addition to Greece.

The idea behind this revision, or addition, is to ensure even more promising commercial prospects for the project by making available renewable energy from northeast Africa to a wider part of Europe.

The revised route being considered by Elica would split into two in the sea area southwest of Crete. From there, two subsea lines, each offering a capacity of 750 MW, would carry on for the wider Athens area and a further two subsea lines, also 750 MW each, would reach the sea area off Greece’s northwest and connect with an existing grid interconnection linking Greece and Italy.

This revised route would enable direct export of Egyptian renewable energy to Italy, as an additional recipient, via the GREGY Interconnector. Greece and Italy would each be able to receive capacities of 1,500 MW through the two lines.

Under the original plan for the GREGY Interconnector, four cables beginning from Egypt and possessing a total capacity of 3,000 MW would have all ended up in the wider Athens area.

Elica, the Copelouzos group subsidiary promoting the project, appears to have informed the Greek and Italian governments, as well as Greek power grid operator IPTO and Italy’s power grid operator TERNA of its planned route revision.

RES projects with a total capacity of 9.5 GW are planned for development in Egypt to feed renewable energy into the GREGY Interconnector.

Greek industrial consumers, seeking low-cost energy, are among the main potential recipients of the 1,500 MW to end up in the wider Athens area. A share of the renewable energy brought in from Egypt may also be exported to other Balkan countries through electrical grid links with Greece.

Italy, whose electricity import needs are among the highest in southern Europe, would cover a considerable proportion of these needs through the GREGY Interconnector, at a low cost.