Croatia keen to join Greece-Germany electrical grid link

Croatia has expressed an interest to join a group of countries engaged in advanced talks for the development of Green Aegean, an electrical grid interconnection project envisaged to run from Greece to Germany’s south.

Besides Greece and Germany, Slovenia and Austria are already involved in the talks for this project.

Greek deputy energy minister Alexandra Sdoukou appears to have been informed of Croatia’s interest to become a fifth member of this group on the sidelines of last week’s ministerial conference staged by the Central and South-Eastern European Gas Connectivity Group (CESEC) in Athens.

Croatia’s interest to join the Green Aegean project has been linked to the country’s plans to develop offshore wind farms in the Adriatic Sea.

A Croatian action plan presented last year indicated the country could develop offshore wind farms with a 25-GW capacity in the Adriatic Sea, a level of output that would establish Croatia as a major European player in this domain.

The Croatian government is well aware that the country’s anticipated excess renewable energy to be generated from mid-way next decade onwards would need to be exported as the domestic system will not be able to absorb the entire output. Greece faces a similar problem.

Green Aegean would benefit all parties involved. Germany needs to find ways to cover huge energy demand increases in the winter, whereas, at the opposite end, Greece faces greater energy demand in the summer.

EU support funds are serving as an incentive for related projects. The European Commission has made available 584 billion euros for electrical grid development in the EU, Brussels announced last November.

Greek power grid operator DESFA’s chief executive Manos Manousakis is scheduled to hold talks in Brussels tomorrow with Mannon van Beek, the CEO at Dutch TSO TenneT, operating in a large part of Germany.

Manousakis recently also met with Germany’s newly appointed ambassador to Greece, Andreas Kindl, to promote the Green Aegean grid interconnection plan.

 

EU support sought for half of Vertical Corridor’s €450m budgeted cost

The Vertical Corridor, a European gas-pipeline system now planned to involve TSOs of seven countries – Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Moldova and Ukraine – will require an estimated 450 million euros in investments, energypress sources have noted.

Greek gas grid operator DESFA’s share of this sum will be minimal as a compressor station at Komotini, northeastern Greece, is all it will need to contribute to the project. All other upgrades to Greece’s gas grid, which, once completed, would enable the country to serve as a Vertical Corridor entry point, are already under development.

Officials of the six other countries participating in the project through initiatives taken by local TSOs believe that 50 percent of the project’s budgeted cost would need to be covered by EU funds if Vertical Corridor is to be materialized.

Project participants will push for political commitment from the European Commission by March as the upcoming European elections and any leadership changes would result in delays.

This issue was raised during a two-day ministerial conference staged by the Central and South-Eastern European Gas Connectivity Group (CESEC) in Athens last week, a gathering attended by European Commissioner for Energy Kadri Simson, but no indications of Brussels’ stance were offered.

Vertical Corridor project members are now expected to intensify their call to the European Commission for political support regarding the project’s development.

Following an initiative taken by Slovakia, an MoU was signed at the CESEC meeting in Athens to bring Moldova and Ukraine into the Vertical Corridor project.

Besides TSOs from the seven participating countries, Gastrade, a consortium established by the Copelouzos group for the imminent Alexandroupoli FSRU at Greece’s northeastern port of Alexandroupoli, and ICGB, the consortium behind the Greek-Bulgarian IGB gas pipeline, are also involved in the Vertical Corridor initiative.

Vertical Corridor meeting to gather project participants

Pivotal European energy infrastructure projects such as a vertical gas corridor, crucial for decoupling the region from Russian gas, an initiative which Ukraine and Moldova will officially join; a Greek-Cypriot-Israeli electrical grid interconnection; as well as hydrogen-related plans, will all be tabled for discussion at a meeting in Athens today between the energy ministers of southeast Europe.

Participants at the CESEC (Central and South Eastern Europe Energy Connectivity) meeting will be focusing on the most mature cross-border and trans-European gas and electricity projects that promise to enhance southeast Europe’s energy autonomy and upgrade its geopolitical importance.

Important remaining priorities concerning the vertical corridor include completion of its  Bulgaria-Romania pipeline segment; and to officially bring Ukraine and Moldova into the project’s picture. As part of the process, Greek gas grid operator DESFA is today expected to sign an MoU will all TSOs involved.

The vertical corridor includes a 182-km Greek-Bulgarian pipeline, the Bulgarian-Romanian section, and its interconnection with the network on the border with Ukraine and Moldova.

This corridor, combined with the imminent launch of the 5.5-bcm capacity Alexandroupoli FSRU, in Greece’s northeast, is expected to accelerate Europe’s effort to decouple the continent’s southeast from Russian energy dependence.

 

RAE gas sector revisions praised at CESEC meeting

European Commission officials have praised regulatory revisions being carried out by RAE, the Regulatory Authority for Energy, for the natural gas sector, while also stressing the importance for quick transition periods.

The favorable comments were offered at the latest Brussels meeting held by the Central and South-Eastern European Gas Connectivity Group (CESEC), focused on ensuring natural gas supply security through the diversification of sources and routes, avoidance of market distortions, as well as further development of interconnection projects and energy hubs in the region.

Participants at the meeting provided updates on the progress of prospective projects such as the Greek-Bulgarian IGB interconnection project; an interconnection to link Bulgaria and Serbia; the floating LNG terminal plan for Alexandroupoli, northeastern Greece; an LNG terminal station in Croatia; as well as the reinforcement of gas transporation systems in Bulgaria and Romania.

Nektaria Karakatsani, a RAE board member, made reference to the regulatory and structural developments taking place in Greece, their aim being to intensify competition and gradually allign the country with EU sector regulations.