power station

Second Greek-Bulgarian grid link set for pre-summer launch

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A second Greek-Bulgarian power grid interconnection, promising to boost transboundary trade and bolster supply security, is scheduled to be completed before summer.

The project, whose Bulgarian section has already been completed, will connect a 200-MVA capacity transmission line running a 151-km distance from Nea Santa in northeastern Greece to Bulgaria’s Maritsa area. The majority of the project’s distance, approximately 121 km, lies within Bulgarian territory.

The interconnection project promises to boost transmission potential at the Greek-Bulgarian border to 1400 MW in a direction from Greece to Bulgaria and 1700 MW from Bulgaria to Greece.

Furthermore, the project will facilitate further RES development in Greece’s north and also enable two Greek power station projects currently being developed to export their production with greater ease.

Construction company GEK-TERNA and energy group Motor Oil have joined forces to develop an 877-MW power station in Komotini, northeastern Greece, while power utility PPC and gas company DEPA Commercial have teamed up for an 840-MW power station in Alexandroupoli, also in the northeast.

New lignite access proposal offered ahead of Brussels talks

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Electricity suppliers could be granted access to power utility PPC’s lignite-related electricity production until 2023, when all the utility’s existing lignite units are scheduled to have been withdrawn, according to a new proposal forwarded by Greek authorities to the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Competition, energypress sources have informed.

The energy ministry delivered this transitional mechanism proposal to Brussels last week after a previous plan appears to have been blocked.

The initial proposal, delivered last December, called for the formation of an SPV by the country’s energy-intensive industrial enterprises to be supplied satisfactory electricity amounts from PPC’s lignite-fired power stations.

However, this proposal appears to have been rejected by Brussels as it focused entirely on industry and excluded retail suppliers, seen as a breach of competition rules because it would not help further open up Greece’s electricity market.

The new Greek proposal is expected to serve as the basis of a new round of talks with the European Commission, scheduled to begin around mid-March. It remains unclear if the new proposal stands a chance of being approved by Brussels competition authorities.

Brussels officials, for quite some time now, have made note of Greece’s failure to comply with a European Court ruling on lignite access for third parties, directly linking this shortcoming with the country’s commitment to a retail electricity market share contraction target at state-controlled PPC to a level of less than 50 percent this year.

The European Commission wants alternative measures implemented between now and 2023 as a result of Greece’s failure to sell PPC lignite units and unilateral termination of NOME auctions.