ENERGY

Every time there is heavy rain in Mandra, west of Athens, factories close down their machinery, to avoid causing damages to their equipment worth millions of euros, due to the Hellenic Electricity Distribution Network Operator's (HEDNO) dated power network.

A corridor for the transporting of natural gas to Europe will be created with the launching of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) at the end of next year and its extension to the Greek-Bulgarian IGB pipeline by the summer of 2021 that will then be extended to Romania and Serbia. This has prompted countries such as Serbia to get in on the action as the country's President Aleksandar Vucic held a two-day visit to Athens this week.

The decision by Finance Minister Christos Staikouras and Deputy Energy Minister Gerasimos Thomas to get the ball rolling on the sale of DEPA Infrastructure in New York reflects the strong interest likely to be expressed from US funds that have been eyeing Greece's domestic natural gas market.

Currently, HRADF holds a 65 pct stake of DEPA’s share capital and Hellenic Petroleum SA the remaining 35 pct. Following the incorporation of the new entity DEPA Infrastructure S.A., HRADF and Hellenic Petroleum will each hold their shares and act as joint sellers.

According to the vice president of the Hellenic Wind Energy Association, Socrates Konstandinidis, large investments need to be promoted in the field of wind energy. The inclusion of offshore wind parks in the country's energy plans is positive, he said, adding that the regulatory framework must be improved with an emphasis on how they will be included in the market and compensated for their services.

China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is well known in Greece as the country's largest port, Piraeus, is in the path of the Modern Silk Road project. What is not as well known in Greece is the Global Energy Interconnection (GEI) initiative which is being led by China's State Grid, the Asian country's largest government company, that controls 24 percent of Greece's ADMIE.

In one of the biggest projects to go ahead in Greece in recent years, three bidders are expected to submit bids on Thursday for the construction of two power conversion plants that will form part of the Attica-Crete grid electricity connector. Along with international partners, the three bidders have their eye on the tender, worth 380 million euros, that has been extended twice.

The technical evaluation of bids submitted for the project connecting Crete to the mainland grid through direct-current cables was completed, the Independent Power Transmission Operator (ADMIE) said on Thursday,while the president of Ariadne Interconnection and CEO of parent company, ADMIE, Manos Manoussakis, said the project "is moving ahead without obstacles" and said ADMIE is committed to starting construction on the 1-billion-euro project by early 2020.

Environment and Energy Minister Kostis Chatzidakis has departed for Sofia to sign an agreement about the Gas Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB) with his Bulgarian counterpart, Temenuzhka Petkova, on Thursday. Following the signing of the bilateral IGB agreement, the delegations of the two countries will attend a working luncheon.

The contracts for hydrocarbon exploration in four areas off Crete and Ionian islands were tabled in the Greek parliament on Wednesday evening for ratification.