Meeting of energy ministers: 15 states in favor of the Greek proposal for a horizontal ceiling on natural gas

“Greece has prepared its energy system for possible interruptions in supply and the government continues to constantly monitor the situation,” noted Environment and Energy Minister Kostas Skrekas during the extraordinary Council of competent ministers in Brussels.

The EU energy ministers considered measures to deal with high energy prices and elaborated scenarios to ensure the adequacy of energy supply Europeduring the winter.

The Greek revenue recovery mechanism, which was proposed as one of the measures of the European Commission and which has been implemented since July 7 in Greece, has been widely accepted by the EU member states, as stated in a statement by the Ministry of the Environment and Energy.

Energy Commissioner, Kadri Simpson, addressing the Minister of Environment and Energy, Kostas Skrekasstated that “the Greek mechanism is interesting and works properly”, it is also pointed out.

Mr. Skrekas repeated the proposal that the Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, had sent to the president of the European Commission for the imposition of a general ceiling on natural gas and the creation of a different pricing model, but expressed Greece’s disagreement with the imposition of a ceiling exclusively on Russian natural gas, as it will have the exact opposite of the intended effect on energy prices. In addition, he pointed out the reduction in demand for natural gas and electricity that Greece has achieved in recent months, but requested that any relevant proposal of the European Commission be balanced so as not to have an impact on the functioning of the economy. During the meeting, 15 EU member states and Germany (subject to conditions) proposed to impose a horizontal ceiling on wholesale natural gas prices, the statement said.

Mr. Skrekas, during his presentation, pointed out that Greece has already achieved the goal of reducing natural gas consumption by 15% thanks to the large increase of RES in our energy mix which this year will add over 1700 MW, and added that the electricity production from lignite has doubled from 10% to 20%. Also, the Greek minister referred to the possibility of changing the operation of the five dual-fuel units from natural gas to diesel, as well as doubling the storage capacity at the station LNG of Revythoussaadding a floating tank in record time.

In addition, he noted that the Greek government will introduce incentives to reduce household electricity consumption by granting higher subsidies when a 10% reduction is achieved. Similar incentives are being considered to be established for businesses as well, as announced. The Greek minister announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with its Italian counterpart for the storage of 1.5 TWh of natural gas in Italy, a quantity which can be transferred to Greece through the reverse flow. He then explained to his counterparts the mechanism for recovering excess revenues from electricity producers, which has been implemented since July 7 in Greece, and which has generated over 1.5 billion euros in the first two months of its operation.

The Minister of Environment and Energy, Kostas Skrekas, attending the extraordinary meeting of energy ministers in the morning, said: “Today, the European Union is called upon to take immediate decisions in order to effectively face the unprecedented challenges entailed by the worst energy crisis of the last 50 years. What Greece and its prime minister proposed from the first phase of the crisis, Europe needs to adopt as the basis of a composed and strong response. We are living in historic times and we cannot afford to delay even a day to straighten our stature. We must listen to the cry of anguish of the European citizens and, in a spirit of solidarity, do whatever it takes to protect energy security and social cohesion throughout Europe.”

RES-EMP

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