The belief that the European Commission will play a positive, constructive role for the continuation of the Greece-Cyprus electrical interconnection project was expressed by the president and CEO of ADMIE, Manos Manousakis, speaking today at Renewable & Storage held in Athens.

“I have seen since the summer an increasing level of EU involvement in the issue. Now the Commission is involved at the highest level as the Energy Commissioner participates in the meetings. The people we are talking to are doing everything in their power to keep the project going,” he emphasized and added:

“Greece’s will, which is declared but can also be seen from the actions taken, is to continue the project, which is considered of great strategic importance. For this to happen, it is necessary to eliminate any risk that ADMIE feels in relation to Cyprus’s attitude towards the project. A spirit of unity is necessary and I think from what I’ve been seeing lately that we’re headed in that direction.”

Mr. Manousakis stated that in the teleconference held on Friday between the regulatory authorities of the two countries with the participation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the ADMIE, two positive steps were taken: “First, we received the promise that the approval of the concession contract between the ADMIE and the subsidiary developing the project will be completed immediately by the two regulators, which is critical in order to be paid for the operating costs and for the equity participation of the Republic of Cyprus in the project.

The second step is that we received a promise from CERA that it will take a corresponding decision on the income of ADMIE with that of RAE. This reduces, but does not eliminate, the regulatory risk to which ADMIE is exposed. From there, the next steps are pending, with the most important of all being the decision on the tariffs so that the first 25 million Euros deriving from the intergovernmental agreement can flow in.”

Referring to developments in renewables, Mr. Manousakis said that applications for new projects currently pending are 50 gigawatts (43.5 solar and 6.5 wind). “We need to take a realistic approach to electricity demand and exports to see what will ultimately be commercially feasible to bring into the electricity system,” he said.

They already have 33 gigawatts of projects up and running and in terms of connection when the ESEK target is 27. What will help is to move storage faster. But the final limit is whether there will be demand to absorb this energy.”