RAE, the Regulatory Authority for Energy, is close to finalizing legal framework for CNG supply to remote parts of Greece not served by the existing pipeline network.
The authority still needs to determine whether the responsibility of grid operators will be limited to compression and decompression procedures, which would leave transmission matters for suppliers to handle, or whether the operators will be responsible for all three stages – compression, transportation and decompression.
If the first of these two options is chosen, then grid operators will need to develop facilities installed with equipment such as decompressors and meters. Gas suppliers would be offered unlimited access to these facilities for their respective storage and transportation needs.
The second option, making grid operators fully responsible for compression, transportation and decompression, would protect consumers in remote areas from being overcharged for CNG supply as the related costs would be spread through the wider distribution network.
RAE official Nektaria Karakatsani, in a recent article, noted that the new framework being prepared for CNG supply to remote parts of Greece shares similar traits to the socially-minded policies applied in the electricity market.
“As is commonly known, the objective in the case of electricity is to maintain a single price throughout Greece, despite the high costs of energy production on the non-interconnected islands,” the RAE official noted.
The shape of the CNG supply plan to remote areas will depend on a number of factors, including the proximity of areas from existing networks as well as the consumption potential of specific areas.
The details of proposals forwarded to RAE by the country’s three operators do differ but all share common investment potential, Karakatsani, the RAE official, pointed out.
All three proposals would require construction of a new low-pressure network measuring 1,600 km, while over 100,000 new consumers, overall, are expected to connect to the network, the official added.