On the critical role of international interconnections for the energy transition of Greece and Europe focused the President and CEO of ADMIE Mr. Manos Manousakis and the Vice President and General Manager of Technology, System Development and Strategy Mr. Ioannis Margaris, during their positions at the 2nd Regional Dialogue of Europe for the Middle East and North Africa (MEFED 2024 ), held in Thessaloniki.

“In Greece’s energy mix, clean energy has already reached 60% and we now have cuts in electricity generation from RES. We also have very ambitious plans to develop offshore wind farms, which means there will be a stronger need for exports. That is why we are planning a series of new international connections”, Mr. Manousakis emphasized, according to the information from ADMIE.

As for her Eastern Mediterraneanreferred to the under construction Greece-Cyprus-Israel Great Sea Interconnector which, as he said, “will enable us to export as well as import energy”.

“Last week we decided to prepare the final studies for the electrical interface with Saudi Arabia moving forward in the coming months,” he added. “There is, of course, the Greece-Egypt interconnection, a private project implemented by the Kopelouzos Group, which we support from a technical point of view.”

Mr. Manousakis pointed out that these projects can make it possible to transfer huge amounts of “green” energy from the Mediterranean to central Europe, where the major consumption centers are located. “This will be mutually beneficial for all economies involved,” he noted.

In the panel, which took place with the participation of the heads of European Administrators and the Deputy Minister of Electricity and Renewable Energy of Egypt Dr. Sabah Mashaly, the need to speed up connections both between EU states and between Europe, the Middle East and North Africa was highlighted. Regarding the interconnections being launched in the wider region, Mrs. Mashaly singled out the Greece-Egypt GREGY interconnection, which is planned to transfer huge amounts of “clean” energy from RES to the European system, via Greece.

The Vice President of ADMIE made a special reference to the electrical interconnection between Greece and Germany, Green Aegean Interconnector. “The Operator is maturing the Greece-Germany electrical interconnection and will have finalized the preliminary study of the project by the end of 2024,” he said.

Mr. Margaris pointed out that this is a very large project for which ADMIE is in open dialogue with all the parties involved, such as the Administrators of Slovenia, Austria, Germany, as well as with suppliers, in order to jointly recognize the techniques possibilities, the needs of neighboring systems and to advance its design.

“It is one of the few multi-terminal electrical interconnections currently being developed worldwide and is a cutting-edge technological project,” he noted. On this basis, he argued that ADMIE has the confidence and know-how for projects of this scope, due to the experience it has gained from the very demanding island interconnections it has implemented in the Aegean in recent years.

During his intervention, the Director General of the Ministry of Energy, Trade and Industry of Cyprus, Mr. Marios Panagidis, emphasized the need to interconnect the island, in order to achieve its integration into the European electricity grid and to end its energy isolation.

Given the ambitious European goals for energy and the climate, Mr. Panagidis characterized interconnections as infrastructures that are absolutely necessary for the continent’s energy transition. In the case of Cyprus, as he said, the electrical interconnection with the rest of Europe, through Greece, will contribute to the reduction of electricity prices, the security of the island’s supply and the “greening” of its energy mix.