ENERGY

The natural gas project in Alexandroupolis - including a terminal station for liquid natural gas (LNG) - will open up the market of natural gas to more competition, and is both an EU Project of Common Interest (PCI) for a connected European energy grid and one strongly supported by the United States.

Every time there is heavy rain in Mandra, west of Athens, factories close down their machinery, to avoid causing damages to their equipment worth millions of euros, due to the Hellenic Electricity Distribution Network Operator's (HEDNO) dated power network.

A corridor for the transporting of natural gas to Europe will be created with the launching of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) at the end of next year and its extension to the Greek-Bulgarian IGB pipeline by the summer of 2021 that will then be extended to Romania and Serbia. This has prompted countries such as Serbia to get in on the action as the country's President Aleksandar Vucic held a two-day visit to Athens this week.

The decision by Finance Minister Christos Staikouras and Deputy Energy Minister Gerasimos Thomas to get the ball rolling on the sale of DEPA Infrastructure in New York reflects the strong interest likely to be expressed from US funds that have been eyeing Greece's domestic natural gas market.

Currently, HRADF holds a 65 pct stake of DEPA’s share capital and Hellenic Petroleum SA the remaining 35 pct. Following the incorporation of the new entity DEPA Infrastructure S.A., HRADF and Hellenic Petroleum will each hold their shares and act as joint sellers.

Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) AG on Tuesday announced the start of operations of a 2 km section of the pipeline in Greece between the Evros river and the Kipoi compressor station.

China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is well known in Greece as the country's largest port, Piraeus, is in the path of the Modern Silk Road project. What is not as well known in Greece is the Global Energy Interconnection (GEI) initiative which is being led by China's State Grid, the Asian country's largest government company, that controls 24 percent of Greece's ADMIE.

In one of the biggest projects to go ahead in Greece in recent years, three bidders are expected to submit bids on Thursday for the construction of two power conversion plants that will form part of the Attica-Crete grid electricity connector. Along with international partners, the three bidders have their eye on the tender, worth 380 million euros, that has been extended twice.

The technical evaluation of bids submitted for the project connecting Crete to the mainland grid through direct-current cables was completed, the Independent Power Transmission Operator (ADMIE) said on Thursday,while the president of Ariadne Interconnection and CEO of parent company, ADMIE, Manos Manoussakis, said the project "is moving ahead without obstacles" and said ADMIE is committed to starting construction on the 1-billion-euro project by early 2020.

Environment and Energy Minister Kostis Chatzidakis has departed for Sofia to sign an agreement about the Gas Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB) with his Bulgarian counterpart, Temenuzhka Petkova, on Thursday. Following the signing of the bilateral IGB agreement, the delegations of the two countries will attend a working luncheon.