Power unit withdrawal risks supply in Crete, Cyclades
The intention of Public Power Corporation to withdraw a total of 41 power generation units from Crete, the Cyclades and the non-interconnected islands from end-2023 up until 2028 sounded the alarm at the Ministry of Environment and Energy and the competent authorities.
The issue will be discussed on Tuesday in a meeting convened at the ministry. The question of the meeting is how to ensure sufficiency mainly of the non-interconnected islands in the summer months, when demand increases due to tourism and there will be a shortage of thermal power.
PPC, according to information, has informed unofficially since October and officially at the beginning of November with letters to the Energy Ministry the electricity regulator (RAAEY) and the grid administrators that it will proceed with the withdrawal of nine units on Crete and the Cyclades and 32 units on the non-interconnected islands gradually from the end of 2023 and until 2028. According to business sources, these units are over 50 years old, constantly break down and in many cases cannot be fixed, because they are of such old technology that there are no spare parts available on the market.
Aware of the problem to be created on the islands during the summer months, when demand increases due to tourism, PPC has proposed to the competent authorities and administrators, who also have the responsibility of ensuring the supply of the islands, a long-term framework for the needs that are created in demand to contain costs, which are ultimately passed on to consumers as utility charges.
In the scenarios that PPC has presented to the competent authorities for the cost of replacing the power from the 41 units that will be phased out, it ranges between 350 million and 500 million euros in case of purchase or rental respectively.
In July-August 2023, PPC added new capacity of 134 MW (including 30 MW on Crete), while also transferring existing units with a total capacity of 15 MW from island to island to cover the increased demand on the non-interconnected islands. Rhodes, Santorini, Samos, Lesvos, Chios, Karpathos, Limnos, Milos, Ikaria, Kythnos and Megisti showed a power deficit in the summer of 2023.
