Natural gas’ share of overall electricity generation in Greece reached 50.1 percent in May, a 29 percent increase compared to the same month a year earlier, highlighting that the country’s energy transition is well and truly in motion.

Renewable energy output is also on the rise, increasing by 30 percent between May this year and last May.

On the contrary, lignite-fired electricity production plummeted 87 percent year on year.

Gas-fueled power station generation covered 38.5 percent of the grid’s needs in May, RES production captured a 29.62 percent share, electricity imports contributed 23.14 percent, hydropower output provided 6.07 percent and lignite units just 2.66 percent.

In the RES sector, wind energy led the way with a 49.82 percent share of this sector’s grid contribution in May, solar energy followed with 40 percent, small-scale hydropower facilities were next with 4.68 percent, biomass-biogas was represented with a 3.68 percent share, and CCHP (combined cooling, heat and power) with 1.81 percent.

Electricity imports and exports are an emerging sector with an increasingly important role in balancing national grids, a prospect that is attracting market players, data covering the year’s first five months has shown.

Electricity imports into Greece via the interconnection shared with Italy captured a 42.38 percent share of overall imports in May, a sharp rise from the previous month’s 32.35 percent share through this link.

Electricity imports from Bulgaria fell to 8.38 percent of the overall amount in May from 23.1 percent in April. Minor changes, between April and May, were registered for Greek imports from interconnections with Albania, North Macedonia and Turkey.

Greek electricity exports to Italy fell sharply to 7.56 percent of the overall total in May from 49.51 percent in April.

The country’s electricity exports to Turkey and Bulgaria rose significantly. Exports to Turkey represented 39.47 percent of Greek power exports in May, up from 17.38 percent a month earlier. Electricity exports to Bulgaria represented 25.69 percent of Greece’s total in May, much higher than April’s 6.17 percent through this interconnection.