Market Intelligence
Smart Grid Greece

Greece Electricity Infrastructure Investment Opportunities

Greece’s electricity grid infrastructure has suffered from massive disinvestment since the start of the financial crisis in 2010.  The current energy crisis has forced the country to accelerate these efforts. In recent years Greece has undergone a series of privatizations for its low grid voltage operator (HEDNO), and its high voltage grid operator (IPTO). Foreign capital is enabling much needed upgrades of infrastructure which will be required to fully leverage renewables.

In 2021, Greece’s Independent Power Transmission Operator (IPTO/ADMIE) released its Ten-Year Development Plan which commits to investing 4.1 billion Euro in the electricity transmission network. These investments will include the development of new international interconnections, upgrades to the national transmission system at high voltage (150 kV) and ultra-high voltage (400 kV) and new projects to improve efficiency.  Additionally, IPTO’s long-term strategy includes investment in greenhouse emission control technology, carbon capture technology, smart technology, efficient load balancing, ancillary services, storage systems, strategic expansion of offshore transmission and cross-border interconnections, as well as energy system digitization enabling the grid to accommodate over 28 GW of renewable energy by 2030. 

This report includes projects in various stages of completion. It should be noted that all local interconnections are close to completion while most international interconnections are still in the planning phases.

Local Interconnections

•    Cyclades interconnection:  The completion of this interconnection will enable the island grid to develop renewable energy storage units of up to 332 MW capacity and entails an investment of 386 million Euro. This project to connect the Cyclades islands was done in four phases, initially connecting Syros Island with Lavrio, as well as with the islands of Paros, Mykonos and Tinos in 2018 and connecting the islands of Paros, Naxos, Mykonos in 2019. The third phase launched a second cable between Lavrio and Syros Island. The final phase of the interconnection, currently under development, will interconnect the islands of Santorini, Thira, Milos, Folegandros and Serifos with the mainland national electricity transmission system. The Santorini interconnection was awarded to Greek firm Hellenic Cables. Thira island is expected to be powered within the first six months of 2023 and the rest of the islands within the first six months of 2024.

•    Skiathos interconnection: This project, completed in July 2022 and budgeted at 9 million Euro, addresses the stability of the electricity supply of the Northern Sporades islands with the installation of submarine and underground cables in Evia and Skiathos and the construction of a substation.

•    Ariadne Interconnector:  After the successful completion of connecting Crete with the Peloponnese, the connection of Attica with Crete is progressing rapidly.  Connection is divided into two sub-projects: the underwater connection with cables including fiber optics (the high-voltage cable is completed by 50% and the fiber optics lines by 100%) and the installation of two power transmission stations and one sub-station. The project was awarded in June 2020 to Prysmian, Nexans, NKT-Hellenic Cables and Siemens-TERNA and will be completed in 2024. 
East Corridor in Peloponnese: The Peloponnese is a particularly critical region for the stability of the south system voltages, in case of loss of production in the region.  The east corridor connects Megalopoli, Corinth and Attica and expands its current capacity of 150 kV to 400kV. The project, which was awarded to the Greek firm Atermon, includes an underground and a submarine transmission line as well as a substation is expected to be completed by 2024-2025. 

•    Koumoundourou High Voltage Center (HVC) reconstruction: The reconstruction of Koumoundourou HVC in Attica is a turn-key project for the replacement and expansion of existing switching devices of 150 kV and 400 kV with cutting-edge Gas Insulated Switchgear (GIS) equipment, the addition of two autotransformers and five compensation self-inductors. Upgrading is critical as this links Corinth and the East Corridor.  The project was contracted to the Greek firm Mytilineos in May 2021, is budgeted for 45.8 million Euro and is planned to be completed by September 2023.

•    High Voltage Center (HVC) at Amfilochia: This project aims to support the energy power transmission generated from renewable energy plants located at the wider area of central Greece.  The project was awarded to the Greek construction firm Rokas and includes the installation of 400 kV Gas Insulated Switchgear (GIS) equipment and SCADA control equipment. The project is planned to be completed by 2024.

International interconnections

•    Euro Asia Interconnector: The project plans to connect the grids of Greece, Cyprus, and Israel, ending Cyprus’ electric isolation.  The project faces immense geopolitical and technical challenges, but the European Commission has announced funding of 657 million Euro in addition to a separate 100 million Euro from the Recovery and Resilience Funds.  Stage 1 of the project for the connection between Greece (through the island of Crete) and Cyprus is budgeted at 2.4 billion Euro.  In July 2022 project developer EuroAsia Interconnector Ltd. selected Nexans as the preferred bidder for the supply and installation of the HVDC 500kV HVDC Mass Impregnated (MI) Cables for the 1,000MW Cyprus – Greece (Crete) link with a capability to increase to 2,000MW. The project was inaugurated in October 2022 in Nicosia. The plan was to start construction in late 2022 and commence operations by 2026 with initial transmission capacity of 1GW.  In this regard, the Cypriot and Israeli energy authorities met in late October 2022 in Cyprus to discuss the provisions and the way of implementation of Regulation (EU) 2022/869 regarding the guidelines for trans-European energy infrastructures and a road map was agreed for the next steps to follow.  

To further speed up implementation procedures of the project, the energy authorities agreed to meet again in the near future in Israel.  The two power poles of the bi-pole are expected to be commissioned respectively in 2026 and 2028. The Israel-Cyprus link consists of a 500 kV DC underwater electric cable and any essential equipment and/or installation for interconnecting the Cypriot and the Israeli transmission networks (offshore). The project will have a capacity of 1000 MW and a total length of around 1208 km (310 km between Cyprus and Israel). Converter stations will be of the Voltage Source Converter (VSC) and will allow for reverse transmission of electricity.  When completed, this will be the longest and the deepest HVDC subsea cable project ever, with bi-pole cables of 2x900km and a water depth of 3,000m.

•    Egypt – Greece Interconnection (GREGY): This project will connect Greece with Egypt through a double cable that will follow a 954 km route from the El Sallum area to South Makri, bypassing the Libyan Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).  The estimated investment is 4 billion Euro and the cable capacity is 3 GW.  The project, which will be submitted as a project of strategic importance for the EU (Projects of Common Interest - PCI), is expected to be ready for electrification by 2027-8 and to transfer “green” energy from Renewable Energy Sources (RES) systems of Egypt. The project will be carried out by ELIKA SA, a member company of Copelouzos group. As of late 2022, project developers are conducting feasibility and technical studies.

•    Greece Africa Power Interconnector (GAP): This project, coordinated by Eunice Group, will run from Egypt’s North Mediterranean coast to Crete and link with another interconnector connecting the southern Aegean islands. The project has been submitted as a project of strategic importance for the EU (Projects of Common Interest - PCI.  The project refers to the construction of a submarine DC transmission link of total capacity 2000MW (2x1000MW) interconnecting Egypt’s North Mediterranean coast and Greece at the island of Crete. A new HVDC conversion station close to the existing thermal power plant of Atherinolakkos in South-East Crete will be the connection point to Greece.

The connection point in Egypt will be at its Northern coast located South of Crete, where the bulk of Egypt’s electrical load and HV transmission grid infrastructure is located. All installations (converter stations, substations etc.) will be of closed type using GIS technology.  The project is included in the 10-year network development plan (TYNDP) that the European association for the cooperation of transmission system operators for electricity (ENTSO-E) publishes every two years and presents how to develop the power grid in the next 10 to 20 years so that it can effectively contribute to achieving the different and sometimes competing Energy union goals (https://tyndp2022-project-platform.azurewebsites.net/projectsheets).

•    Italy – Greece Interconnection:  Awarded by IPTO to Greek firm Terna, the aim of this project is to increase power transfer capacity between Greece and Italy by 500MW to 1GW.  The needed studies for the submarine cable interconnection are underway.

•    Bulgaria – Greece Interconnection: Executed by IPTO for the Greek part of the project, the aim is to reinforce the regional grid and increase transfer capacity between Greece and Bulgaria. A second 400kV OverHead Line (OHL) interconnection is currently under construction.  This 151 km long connection will link Maritsa East in Bulgaria with Nea Santa in Greece.  Of this, 30 km will be in Greek territory and 121 km in Bulgarian territory. The budget for the works in Greece amounts to 11.3 million Euro and is expected to be completed in 2023.

•    Turkey – Greece Interconnection: Executed by IPTO, the aim of this project is to further increase transfer capacity while reinforcing the grid. Greece is planning a second 400kV OverHead Line (OHL) interconnection with Turkey. The project’s budget for the works done in the Greek territory amounts to 24.2 million Euro.

•    North Macedonia – Greece Interconnection: IPTO is currently conducting the needed feasibility studies for increasing the capacity of one of the two existing 400kV interconnection lines between Greece and North Macedonia. 

•    Albania – Greece Interconnection: IPTO is currently investigating the plan of building a second 400kV OHL interconnection between Greece and Albania. 

•    Greece – Austria – Germany Interconnection: A proposed electrical interconnection between Greece, Austria and Germany was announced in November 2022 by the Greek Minister of Environment and Energy. The project would include a cable with an initial green electricity transmission capacity of 3 GW and the possibility of increasing it to 9 GW. The energy will be produced by renewable energy sources in Greece. The project developer IPTO is currently exploring two potential routes for the electrical interconnection: across the Western Balkans or through Albania the Adriatic, and Slovenia. 

Opportunities for U.S. firms

Although EU equipment tends to dominate the market, U.S. firms provided around $43 million in electricity infrastructure exports in 2021. Opportunities for U.S. firms exist in providing equipment including insulated wires, cables and electrical conductors, optical fiber cables, electrical apparatus, batteries and more.  U.S. firms also have opportunities in consulting and project management services as well as other infrastructure-related needs.
For more information about these projects or market opportunities please connect with Energy Specialists Teresa Gile (Teresa.Gile@trade.gov) and Mary Simopoulou (Mary.Simopoulou@trade.gov). 

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