Greece has made noticeable progress
with its energy-sector reforms in recent years. The country moved forward on
plans to restructure state-owned companies and liberalize electricity and gas
markets, an impressive programme that will lead to more competitive and
financially viable energy markets offering choices and low prices to consumers,
according to the International Energy Agency's latest in-depth review of
Greece's energy policies.
The IEA report,
Energy Policies of IEA Countries: Greece 2017 Review
,
encourages the country to pursue energy sector reforms that will provide
long-term economic benefits. The report notes the important role that the
country's energy regulatory authority played in ensuring timely implementation
of market reforms, and stresses the need to provide the regulator with all the
necessary resources to meet its growing responsibilities.
The IEA report also welcomes the government's
efforts to strengthen energy security through investments in natural gas and
electricity infrastructure, most notably by enhancing regional
inter-connections, extending gas storage and promoting international gas
pipelines to diversify supply routes. However, the government should allow gas
and electricity markets to promptly react to price signals and assess supply
adequacy in an integrated and regional manner, according to the IEA review, the
first since 2011.
The country is expected to achieve its 2020
emission reduction and energy efficiency targets through a combination of
targeted policy measures for renewable energy and energy efficiency, and the
substantially lower energy demand as a result of the economic crises. Last
year, Greece had more solar, notably solar heating, in total final consumption
than any other IEA member country. Greece should also explore its renewable
energy potential beyond solar and wind, and advance their usage beyond the
electricity sector.
"Greece has a vast unexplored potential
for renewable energy and we support the country's efforts to explore this
potential by interconnecting its islands with the mainland energy system,"
said Dr Fatih Birol, the IEA's Executive Director. Dr Birol also noted the
critical importance of gas and electricity sector reforms that will support the
country's economic recovery.
Greece's economy is decoupling economic
growth from increases in CO2 emissions but at a slower rate than the average
for IEA member countries. The same is also true for the improvements in energy
intensity. The drop in energy use because of lower economic activity hides minimal
improvements in energy intensity since 2000, according to the IEA review. The
report recommends that Greece pursues the implementation of ambitious energy
efficiency policies, learning from the outcomes of past and current measures,
also in other IEA countries.
The report also found that
current
policies will not be adequate to guide the Greek energy sector towards the
long-term energy transition that the government is aiming for. The country's
economic recovery sh
ould beused as
an opportunity for Greece to get a head
start on longer-term emission reductions by pursuing initiatives that support
sustainable increases in efficiency, and a switch from oil and coal to natural
gas and renewable energy.
"The IEA believes that a key priority
for policy makers should be to introduce a comprehensive policy framework to
2030 and beyond, as a pick-up in economic growth could easily lead to a rebound
of energy demand growth and increase in emissions," Dr Birol said.
Greece currently lacks a longer term
integrated energy and climate strategy and the report recommends the Government
to develop such a strategy and to specifically take into considerations
ambitions for energy efficiency and renewable energy.
Download the full report here
.