European Commission Highlights the Importance of Greek Energy Projects

The European Commission has declared several energy projects, which are of strategic importance for Greece, as potential 'projects of common interest'. This has breathed new life into investment in Greek energy projects amid the ongoing economic uncertainty facing the country.

Within the framework of consultation on the energy infrastructure package - which will include proposals for a regulation on trans-European energy infrastructure and a regulation on the Connecting Europe facility, covering energy, transport and telecommunications infrastructure - 12 priority corridors and areas have been identified, and the criteria and procedure for projects to become projects of common interest have been defined.

The commission has compiled a list of energy infrastructure projects to be considered in a public consultation as potential projects of common interest. It hopes to pass all necessary regulatory measures and obtain the necessary financing to initiate the projects by 2014. Representatives of the Greek Ministry of Environment, Energy and Climate Change, the Regulatory Authority for Energy, the Independent Power Transmission Operator, the Hellenic Gas Transmission Systems Operator and public gas corporation DEPA form the expert groups which will make the final decision as to which projects will be included on the list.

The highlighting of these projects – and the renewed interest that this has generated in the development of Greek energy projects – is of great significance, considering the recent cautious attitude towards investment in the Greek energy sector. While the final list will not include all of the proposed projects, the most prevalent and strategic projects are listed below.

Natural gas:

• Trans-Adriatic pipeline – this is an 800 kilometre (km) pipeline whose entry point shall be the end point of the existing Turkey-Greece interconnector. It will pass through Greece and Albania to Italy.
• Extension of the existing liquefied natural gas terminal in Revythoussa – this will involve the construction of a third liquefied natural gas tank (95,000 million cubic feet (m³)), and the send-out rate will be increased from 1,000 to 1,450m³ of liquefied natural gas per hour.
• Underground gas storage at South Kavala – this will be achieved through the conversion of a depleted gas field. The site is owned by the state; the concessionaire has not yet been defined.
• Alexandroupolis independent natural gas system – this project comprises a floating storage and regasification unit, a liquefied natural gas terminal and a gas transmission pipeline system connecting the unit to the natural gas transmission system.
• Aegean liquefied natural gas import terminal – this is a floating storage and regasification unit with a capacity of between 3 billion and 5 billion cubic feet (bm³) per year, which will include all of the necessary storage regasification and berthing facilities for liquefied natural gas tankers with a capacity of at least 150,000m³.
• Greece-Bulgaria interconnector – this 180km pipeline has a projected capacity of 3bm³ per year and will be expandable up to 5bm³ per year; it will also have bi-directional gas flow possibility. This project has a 2014 construction date.
• Trans-Mediterranean gas pipeline – this will transport natural gas from the Levantine Basin to Greece's natural gas transmission system through Cyprus. The proposed pipeline will have a total length of 1,400km and could allow for reverse flow. It will be accompanied by the relevant project infrastructure facilities, including three onshore compressor stations – in Cyprus, Crete (Greece) and mainland Greece.
• East Mediterranean pipeline – this pipeline will carry approximately 8bm³ per year and will be around 1,100km in length. It may also include a landfall in Crete, before its final destination in Greece's mainland, which could also allow for the offtake of gas in Crete.
• Greece-Italy interconnector – this is a 613km pipeline which will import up to 20bm³ per year of natural gas from the Caspian Sea, Middle East and east Mediterranean regions into Italy.

Electricity:

• EuroAsia interconnector – this project will connect Israel, Cyprus and Greece (Crete). It consists of an underwater electric cable and essential equipment and installations for interconnecting the Cypriot, Israeli and Greek transmission networks. This project will have a capacity of 2,000 megawatts (MW) and a total length of 1,000km; it will allow for the reverse transmission of electricity.
• Egypt-Greece interconnector – this project will have a submarine high-voltage direct current link with a total capacity of 3,000MW, which concerns the installation of new wind farms in Egypt and the transmission of conventional and renewable energy sources from Egypt to Greece to be exported to other European countries.
• Connection of Crete to Greece's national grid – this will occur via an underwater cable. The project is intended to transmit the power output of 33 wind farm, with a total planned output of 1,077MW.
• Helios interconnector – this project will connect and transfer energy produced by photovoltaic farms from Greece to Germany (via Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Austria).
• Southeastern-North electricity highway – this will be an overhead high-voltage direct current line (along with its necessary substations) operating at 800 kilovolts and with a transfer capacity of up to six gigawatts. This new line will accommodate the transfer of energy produced by the Helios project in Greece.
• Agios Georgios and Pyrgos pumped storage complex – this project will consist of two upper reservoirs with an annual energy production of 264,000 megawatt hours per year.
• Attica-Crete-Rhodes connection – this will be a new high-voltage direct current subsea cable with a capacity of 2,200MW, starting in Attica and reaching Rhodes via the islands of Crete, Kasos and Karpathos.
• Interconnection of islands - various projects proposing the interconnection of islands (eg, those in the northern Aegean, the Cyclades and Crete) to the mainland grid system have been endorsed by the Independent Power Transmission Operator and renewable energy sources developers; there are also several proposals for the construction of various new substations and the upgrading of older ones.

This update was originally published in the International Law Office Energy & Natural Resources Newsletter – www.iloinfo.com

For further information on this topic please contact Gus J Papamichalopoulos or Sotiris Douklias at Kyriakides Georgopoulos & Daniolos Issaias by telephone (+30 210 81 71 500), fax (+30 210 6856 6578) or email (g.papamichalopoulos@kgdi.gr or s.douklias@kgdi.gr).  KGDI Law Firm, 28, Dimitriou Soutsou Str., 115 21, Athens – Greece, www.kgdi.gr.