There’s nice creativeness in Greece’s interconnection technique. Current bulletins about plans to attach the Greek grid with networks in Saudi Arabia, Austria, and Germany exhibit enormous ambition. Furthermore, lately, the nation has been steadily working to hyperlink with Cyprus, Israel, and Egypt.
The thought of an electrical energy interconnection operating from Saudi Arabia to Greece was first expressed publicly in July 2022, throughout a state go to by Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Bin Salman informed Greek officers on the time that by linking the electrical energy grids of the 2 international locations, “we are able to present Greece and southwest Europe, via Greece, with less expensive renewable power.” He added that the 2 international locations are engaged on hydrogen and that Greece can perform as a hydrogen hub for Europe. “That’s a recreation changer for each of us,” he mentioned.
A year-and-a-half and plenty of conferences later, these concepts are taking form. In February 2024, Saudi Arabia’s state-owned Saudi Electrical energy Firm, which enjoys a close to monopoly within the era and transport of electrical energy in Saudi Arabia, shaped a brand new firm via its subsidiary, Nationwide Grid S.A., with Greece’s Impartial Energy Transmission Operator (IPTO). The corporate was shaped to conduct business viability and different research for the event of a Saudi-Greek electrical energy interconnection through a high-voltage direct present (HVDC) cable. The brand new firm, Saudi Greek Interconnection, is predicated in Athens and has preliminary capital of €500,000 ($544,452). Its possession is break up equally between Nationwide Grid S.A. and IPTO. The 2 events signed a shareholders’ settlement in September 2023.
Island hopping
The proposed line connecting Greece to Cyprus and Israel is Greece’s most superior worldwide interconnection plan but. Promoted by IPTO subsidiary Nice Sea Interconnector, the hyperlink will likely be comprised of three distinct segments: connecting mainland Greece to Greece’s largest island, Crete; then Crete to Cyprus; and eventually, Cyprus to Israel. The electrical energy interconnection at the moment underneath building between Attica, in mainland Greece, and Crete entails two 335 km subsea 500 kV DC cables and is predicted to start full business operations by mid-2025.
Financing this a part of the undertaking was not an issue. In February 2024, the European Union’s Regional Improvement Fund introduced €250 million for the road to Crete, which can also be supported individually by different European Union and home Greek funds. A young course of to allocate 20% of the undertaking to personal traders has additionally been launched by IPTO, which at the moment totally owns the hyperlink to Crete. The brand new interconnector undertaking follows the development of a separate, 174 km subsea connection from Crete to the Peloponnese, in Greece, in 2021. That undertaking linked mainland Greece and Crete via a line with 2×200 megavolt amperes (MVA) transport capability.
The Greek authorities and IPTO are actually in search of to safe financing for the interconnector from Crete to Israel. In 2022, the European Fee authorised €657 million of funding for the development of the interconnector whereas the Cypriot authorities has dedicated an extra €100 million. The section linking Crete to Cyprus alone has an estimated price of €1.58 billion.
In December 2023, IPTO signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with United Arab Emirates energy and water firm TAQA and Cyprus’ Ministry of Power, Commerce and Trade. The MoU was signed in a bid to convey TAQA and Cyprus into IPTO’s Nice Sea Interconnector.
Individually, Greece’s Ministry of the Setting and Power introduced in February 2024 that US Worldwide Improvement Finance Corp. has additionally expressed curiosity in collaborating within the Nice Sea Interconnector.
In the meantime, in August 2023, the European Funding Financial institution (EIB) determined to reject a mortgage for the interconnector to develop to Cyprus, on the premise that power storage also needs to be explored as a substitute proposition to Cyprus’ power safety.
Nonetheless, IPTO is prepared to proceed with enterprise as common. In December 2023, the Greek transmission operator issued a Discover to Proceed to undertaking contractor Nexans, which is headquartered in Paris, France. In observe, which means IPTO notified Nexans to order the required manufacturing capability for the manufacturing of cables linking Crete to Cyprus. The contract between IPTO and Nexans was signed in July 2023.
Egyptian connection
Linking Greece and Egypt’s grids was formally proposed for the primary time in 2021 at a gathering between the 2 international locations’ power ministers in Athens. The Greek-Egyptian interconnection undertaking, abbreviated to “GREGY” is now managed by Elica SA, a subsidiary of Greek infrastructure investor Copelouzos Group.
In 2023, IPTO and Elica signed an settlement with the purpose of bringing IPTO into the GREGY undertaking with a 33.3% share. In keeping with the MoU, the 2 corporations also needs to enter discussions with Egypt’s transmission system operator with the purpose of getting all three events personal one-third of the GREGY line.
The Nice Sea and the GREGY Interconnectors have each been shortlisted by the European Fee to obtain streamlined permits and regulatory processes. Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi seems eager on the undertaking. In a gathering with the chairman of the Copelouzos Group in January 2024, El-Sisi requested the 2 sides to hurry up their cooperation efforts for the undertaking to start out building as quickly as attainable.
Street to Germany
Greece can also be exploring an interconnection hyperlink to Austria and southern Germany. The proposed Inexperienced Aegean Interconnector, a DC line connecting the international locations, has been overtly mentioned by the Greek authorities since 2022. Greece has urged that the interconnector might have an preliminary capability of three GW, with an choice to ramp as much as 9 GW at a later stage. The rationale behind the interconnector is that Greece and the Center Jap international locations linked to it have larger photo voltaic assets whereas Austria and Germany have larger wind energy potential, benefiting all events.
On Feb. 29, 2024, the European Community of Transmission System Operators for Electrical energy (ENTSO-E) printed a draft checklist of interconnection and power storage initiatives that would convey financial, environmental, or safety of provide advantages to Europe. ENTSO-E has additionally enlisted the Inexperienced Aegean Interconnector, sketching a route that begins in Preveza, Greece, and travels undersea through the Adriatic to Slovenia after which on to Austria and Germany. Greece’s prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, has been selling the undertaking in conferences with different European leaders and the European Fee.
Geopolitics vs. enterprise
Talking at a coverage occasion in Washington, DC, in February, Greek deputy power minister Alexandra Sdoukou informed the viewers that “we aspire to turn out to be a regional power hub for southeast Europe and the japanese Mediterranean. Our three important priorities are rising the penetration of renewable power methods and selling decarbonization, supporting our area’s safety of provide, and planning and growing infrastructure that connects three continents.”
Geopolitics is a important driver for the event of interconnections between Greece and the Center East, Fanos Karantonis, chairman of Cyprus’ Electrical energy Market Affiliation, informed pv journal. However these initiatives may also have implications for the electrical energy insurance policies and markets of the international locations they join. Cyprus, for instance, is an island with an remoted electrical energy community. It doesn’t but have a aggressive electrical energy market construction in place. The operation of the interconnection to Greece and Israel makes it necessary for Cyprus to open its electrical energy market to competitors, in keeping with the European Union’s goal mannequin. The interconnector can due to this fact be a coverage enabler, argued Karantonis.
The electrical energy combine in Cyprus is dominated by fossil fuels. Final yr, fossil-fuel crops generated 83.5% of the nation’s electrical energy wants. This implies Cyprus’ wholesale market costs are excessive – positively larger than in Greece, which in 2023 generated 57% of its electrical energy from renewables. A useful aggressive market construction would drive Cyprus to run a spot market, resulting in unfavourable costs much like these skilled elsewhere in Europe on very sunny or windy days, argued Karantonis. When this occurs, energy suppliers would have the ability to purchase low-cost energy on the Cypriot spot market. At different instances, when Cyprus’ wholesale market costs are excessive, suppliers might go for low-cost electrical energy costs via the interconnector to Greece and Israel. Such a enterprise proposition is predicted to trigger a big drawback for the island’s fossil gasoline turbines, because of their excessive working prices in comparison with renewables.
One query is whether or not native traders would rush to develop photo voltaic and power storage in response. Karantonis mentioned this gained’t essentially be the case as a result of Greece, Cyprus, and Israel are all in the identical area and time zone, which means that their provide and demand profiles largely coincide. Ultimately, Cyprus might want to determine how a lot and what sort of standby energy capability it must function and whether or not a capability reserve market will truly be wanted. The issue intensifies given the very fact the Nice Sea Interconnector’s capability is about to be 1 GW, far surpassing electrical energy demand in Cyprus in winter.
All international locations linked by the proposed interconnectors will face comparable questions. Nations with bigger energy demand could have a better time absorbing interconnection flows into their native markets. There might be geopolitical ramifications, too, as interconnections might present very important power safety.
If the deliberate line to Austria and Germany goes forward, the advantages for the interconnected nations will multiply. The query is which power turbines will provide the interconnector. IPTO has mentioned that “the GREGY undertaking will transport 100% inexperienced power from Egypt to Greece, and thru Greece to Europe, thus considerably decreasing CO2 emissions.” Waleed Al-Saadi, performing chief govt officer of Saudi Arabia’s Nationwide Grid, has argued that the Saudi-Greek undertaking would be the place to begin for strengthening the interconnection between Saudi Arabia and Europe and strengthening Europe’s power transition to renewables.
Such statements are constructive however not at all times backed by growth on the bottom. Saudi Arabia, for instance, remains to be a laggard within the growth of renewable power services, producing a mere 0.2% of its electrical energy demand in 2021 from photovoltaics. Egypt has been barely extra energetic in renewables, offering 4.5% of its electrical energy in 2022 from photo voltaic and wind. Maybe notably, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Israel, and Cyprus all have vital fossil gasoline reserves. Greece, for now, seems to be the one nation within the group delivering on power transition targets.
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