In an intervention at the start of “Power Summit 2024» the prime minister Mr. Kyriakos Mitsotakis he referred, among other things, to her “impressive transformation PPC under the leadership of Mr. G. Stassi”, with the result that the company that was on the brink of bankruptcy in 2019 is now a “regional energy player”.

At the opening meeting held in the morning, the European Energy Commissioner Country Simpson praised the progress made by Greece in the energy transition, highlighting in a taped message the new record in the penetration of renewable energy sources in electricity production achieved in 2023. Ms. Simpson also noted the steps taken by the EU to wean itself off Russian natural gas, but emphasized that for the achievement of the goals set for 2030 needs further action and acceleration of the effort.

The president and CEO of PPC George Stassis he referred to the results of the policy implemented in the last 5 years in our country and PPC, despite the pandemic and the energy crisis, with the doubling of photovoltaics, the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions by 60% with the ongoing withdrawal of lignite units. “In the next 3 years, we will double RES in Greece and Romania,” said Mr. Stassis, while underlining the need for investments in technology and the digitalization of the energy system as a whole, interconnections, distribution infrastructure and ensuring energy security.

The president of the BSE Dimitris Papalexopoulos he stressed that Europe urgently needs a development strategy as it is losing competitiveness against both Asian countries and the USA while he warned of the risk of deindustrialization due to the high cost of energy.

The need for the EU to move from the discussion stage to implementation was underlined by Leonhard Birnbaum, CEO of E.On and chairman of Eurelectric. “We cannot stand another debate about what green hydrogen is,” he said. He noted that the problem of the EU is broader and is not found only in energy, citing the lack of a single European capital market, which should, as he said, be a priority of the next European Commission.

Present at the conference is the managing director of the Ukrainian electricity company, Maxim Timchenko, who requested the assistance of European energy companies by sending equipment (transformers, turbines) to strengthen the production potential of the country that has suffered extensive damage from the Russian attacks.