Dodecanese

Development of an electrical grid interconnection to link the Cretan and Athenian systems is expected to be completed a year from now, while the project’s commercial launch is slated for mid-2025, following testing, Greek power grid operator IPTO’s chief executive Manos Manousakis has told an OT (Oikonomikos Tahydromos) Forum.

Also, two sections of a grid interconnection being developed at the Cyclades islands, one linking Naxos and Santorini, the other Milos, Folegandros and Serifos, are expected to progress at the aforementioned rate, the IPTO chief executive informed the event.

Once the two Cyclades segments are completed, all the Cyclades islands will be interconnected with the Greek mainland.

An interconnection project to link the Dodecanese islands with the mainland is planned to follow. Work is expected to begin with a segment from the Dodecanese to the Peloponnese, though other options are also being considered, the IPTO head noted.

Gas grid operator DESFA’s ten-year development plan has been approved by RAE, the Regulatory Authority for Energy, following a lengthy procedure, including consultation, that lasted several months.

A virtual pipeline proposal envisioning LNG supply to Crete, the north Aegean islands and the Dodecanese via tankers from the operator’s Revythoussa terminal just off Athens was left out of the approved plan. This is the ten-year plan’s only notable change compared to the draft forwarded for consultation.

LNG virtual pipelines serve as a substitute for conventional gas pipelines to enable the transport of LNG to points of use by sea, road or a combination of these.

The virtual pipeline proposal was removed from the DESFA ten-year plan following concerns expressed by consultation participants over higher surcharge costs for consumers that could have been imposed as part of the project’s cost recovery procedure.

The gas grid operator’s ten-year plan includes, for the first time, a natural gas outlet along the TAP route for the west Macedonia region in Greece’s north.

This TAP outlet, a project budgeted at 3 million euros and expected to be launched late in 2022, is intended to supply natural gas to the area’s provincial cities of Kozani, Ptolemaida, Florina and Amynteo for use at telethermal facilities as well as other energy needs in the post-lignite era.

The area’s telethermal system currently relies on energy produced by power utility PPC’s lignite-fired power stations, soon set for withdrawal as part of the country’s decarbonization effort.

Crete-Athens power grid link ‘to be launched mid-2025’

DESFA 10-year plan approved, virtual pipelines not included