In view of the ongoing
developments at European and country level, IENE decided to organize an
in-depth discussion on Greece’s electricity market, currently in transition and
how this relates to European developments. Hence, on March 28, IENE convened in
Athens a special afternoon colloquium, under the title "The Electricity Market
in Transition – Latest Developments in Greece and Europe”. The event attracted
record attendance from market players, senior executives from all major energy
companies and several well-known experts.
In this IENE event, the
necessary changes in the organization and operation of the domestic retail
market in view of the ongoing decrease of incumbent PPC’s market share, decarbonization
process and the entry of several new players were also discussed. Key questions
about the future of Greece’s electricity market and competition in its retail
market sparked a broad discussion, facilitating the exchange of views between
involved players and consumers.
In his introductory speech,
IENE’s Chairman, Mr. John Chadjivassiliades, outlined the landscape currently
under formation in the energy market and the major changes currently underway.
According to Mr. Chadjivassiliades, investments in the transmission network as
well as in strong interconnections are some of the most crucial challenges
facing the further developments of Greece’s electricity system.
As it was pointed out in
the introductory session of the colloquium, the European Union, through
coordinated efforts, has over the last few years been promoting the creation of
an integrated electricity market. The "target model” for the integrated
European market identifies the minimum requirements that the individual
national electricity markets of each EU member state, including Greece, should
adopt in order to establish a common operating architecture that will in turn
lead to the coupling of European markets and to increased competition for the
benefit of the final consumer. The main objective of the integrated electricity
market being the reduction of the energy costs and the strengthening of security
of supply, through the formation and gradual convergence of electricity supply
prices via mechanisms such as energy exchanges as well as the strengthening and
expansion of electricity interconnections among EU member states.
From his part, Dr.
Miltiades Aslanoglou (Energy and Regulatory Economics Consultant, Alternate of the
Board of Appeal, ACER, and former Deputy Chairman, Regulatory Authority of Energy
-RAE, Greece) stressed that Greece needs to improve its digital infrastructure
in electricity and natural gas, and also to stop wasting money on things with
no future instead of exploiting assets that remain idle.
Mr. Vassilis Rallis, Senior
Advisor, Energy Markets - Regulatory Authority for Energy, Greece, described
the advantages of the Energy Exchange to be established by the end of 2018 in
Greece. The Energy Exchange will contribute towards the establishment of a
market with benefits to market participants and end users, noted Mr. Rallis. The
General Director of Greece’s TSO (ADMIE S.A.), Dr. Ioannis Kambouris, focused
on the significance of developing the country’s electricity network and the
relevant interconnections, especially in the islands but also with neighbouring
countries.
The second session, chaired
by Dr. Aslanoglou, concerned power generation and trading. Mr.
Stavros
Goutsos
, Deputy CEO of PPC (Greece’s Public
Power Corporation) S.A., stressed that the company’ s future relies on natural
gas and RES as it gradually withdraws from lignite use. As far as the Energy
Exchange is concerned, he underlined that the new regulatory and legal
framework, of lower taxation and genuine competition, has to be established as
soon as possible.
Speaking in
the same session, Mr. Dinos Benroubi, Chief Exec Director of Electric Power at Mytilineos
Holdings S.A.,
stressed
the "paradox” of PPC’s lignite units forcing out of the market’ s natural gas units,
while CO2 prices in
EU
ETS are very high and are
getting even higher. He added that NOME auctions have failed so far to bring about
the liberalization of the retail electricity market.
Mr. George Kouvaris, Chairman
of the Board of Directors of Heron Thermoelectric S.A., underlined that
independent natural gas units are in operation only to avoid the take-or-pay clause,
thus suffering from frequent damages. From his part, Mr.
Andreas
Petropouleas, Energy Management
Director at
Elpedison S.A., urgently
asked for measures, since, under the present status, the cost falls on the
shoulders of the producers.
The European Union,
through coordinated efforts, has over the last few years been promoting the
creation of an integrated electricity market. At the same time, the EU targets
for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions have lead to the radical
transformation of the power sector; thus, both electricity markets and networks
are in transition. While most European countries have already developed
integrated electricity markets, this does not hold for most countries in SE
Europe where developments are not particularly satisfactory, despite the fact
that Energy Community countries (see the Western Balkans) are already committed
to get every country coupled with at least one of their neighbors by the middle
of 2018.
The event concluded with a session
and a roundtable discussion on some crucial issues of "The Greek Market in
Transition”, chaired by IENE’s Executive Director, Mr. Costis Stambolis, with
the participation of representatives from RES and power trading associations
and companies. The transition of RES autoproducers to a competitive market and
participation in the daily market was discussed at length. Several difficulties
were identified in the transition phase for the large majority of RES
producers.
The main sponsors of this
IENE colloquium included PPC,
Mytilineos Holdings S.A., Heron
Thermoelectric S.A. and ENSCO A.G. Greece’s leading energy portal,
Energia.Gr, the "Naftemporiki”
newspaper and
www.naftemporiki.gr
website were the event’s
media partner.