The public service compensation (YKO) special account, subsidizing higher-cost electricity generation on non-interconnected islands as well electricity costs for low-income households, is expected to end the year with a modest surplus, July’s launch of the Crete-Peloponnese grid interconnection being a key factor, paving the way, in 2022, for reductions of YKO surcharges included in electricity bills, energypress sources have informed.

A precise figure on the extent of the YKO special account surplus for 2021 is expected in October, when the distribution network operator, DEDDIE/HEDNO, managing this account, submits a related report to RAE, the Regulatory Authority for Energy.

As is the case each year, the report will include financial details on the YKO special account for the current year’s first ten-month period as well as the operator’s projections for the final two months.

YKO savings resulting from the Crete-Peloponnese grid interconnection are worth approximately one million euros per day, the overall benefit in 2022 estimated at 380 million euros, power grid operator IPTO informed.

The end of the energy isolation of the Cyclades islands Syros, Paros, Tinos, Mykonos and Naxos has led to YKO savings of approximately 70 million euros per day, IPTO officials added.

Public service compensation account savings are expected to nearly double by 2024, when the fourth phase of the Cyclades grid interconnection is expected to be completed and the Crete-Athens interconnection is scheduled to be launched.

Further ahead, towards the end of the decade, this account’s outlay will be subdued even more when interconnections in the Dodecanese and North Aegean are scheduled to be completed.