Upon the invitation of the International Energy
Agency (IEA), IENE participated in the Agency’s in-depth review of the energy policy
of Greece which was held in Athens last week (April 3-7, 2017) under the
auspices of Greece’s Ministry of Energy and Environment.
On a regular basis (almost every four years),
the IEA conducts the aforementioned in-depth review on all of its member
countries and includes a visit of a group of energy experts from these
countries as well as the IEA’s secretariat. Upon completion of the above review
and based on IEA’s conclusions, a comprehensive country report is to be
prepared and published in the fall of 2017. It is worth noting that the last
time Greece took part in such a review was in 2010 and the IEA’s report was
published in 2011.
IENE actively participated in the discussion
about energy security in Greece together with Professor Dimitrios Mavrakis,
Director at Energy Policy and Development Center (KEPA), Sotiris Karellas,
Associate Professor at the Thermal Engineering Section of the School of
Mechanical Engineering of the National Technical University of Athens and Mrs
Hara Nikolopoulou and Antonia Nikoli, delegates from the Hellenic Competition
Commission.
In his presentation entitled "Energy Security
in SE Europe: Special Focus on Greece”, IENE’s Executive Director Mr. Costis
Stambolis initially outlined the current situation on Greece’s energy mix and
its gradual change with higher penetration of natural gas and RES and the
retreat of coal (lignite) over the last ten years. After highlighting Greece’s existing
gas and electricity interconnections, he presented the planned new regional projects
which are expected to improve the country’s security of supply, including the Vertical
Corridor, Southern Gas Corridor and East Med gas pipeline but also the EuroAsia
Interconnector in the case of electricity. Furthermore, Mr. Stambolis described
the various vulnerable key energy infrastructure locations
in SE Europe that constitute potential energy security hot spots, stressing
that crisis management plans must be prepared in order to meet any emergencies (e.g. physical hazards, large scale
industrial accidents or terrorist actions) which may also have negative impact
on Greece’s energy security.