The original purpose of RAE, the Regulatory Authority for Energy, to regulate networks and facilitate robust competition, needs to be restored, while adjustments are needed so that the authority can promote technological advancements and investments, Pantelis Capros, Professor of Energy Economics at the National Technical University of Athens, who served as RAE’s very first president, has noted, timing his comments with a change of leadership at the authority.

The government is in the process of filling three vacant positions on RAE’s seven-member board, including chief executive and deputy.

Over the 20 years that have elapsed since RAE’s launch, the authority has changed considerably, taken on many duties, but also become more bureaucratic, possibly more conservative and less independent, Capros pointed out, adding that technological and political developments concerning the energy sector have been enormous during this time.

“I am in favor of a cold restart, in a groundbreaking way,” Capros noted, adding that a new regulatory strategy that may support the transition to carbon neutrality is necessary.

The terms of Nikos Boulaxis, the former chief, his deputy Sotiris Manolkidis, and board member Nektaria Karakatsani have all just ended.