New, important projects to strengthen the reliability and resilience of the Transmission System and to serve the increasing penetration of RES (onshore and offshore) are included in the Independent Power Transmission Operator’s (IPTO) 10-Year Development Plan 2025-2034.
The total budget of the projects in the plan for the specific period amounts to 5.5 billion euros.
The new plan also includes for the first time the new cross-border interconnections Green Aegean Interconnector and Saudi Greek Interconnection, which began to mature last year.
International connections
The international connections promoted by IPTO play a prominent role in the new plan. These connections serve the national goal of making Greece an exporter of green energy, while promoting the EU’s goals of finding new energy sources and accelerating the green transition.
After the completion of the second interconnection with Bulgaria, IPTO is maturing new interconnections with Italy (1,000 MW), Albania (1,600 MVA) and Turkey.
These are projects on the northern border, which frame the large interconnections that are underway: Greece – Cyprus – Israel (Great Sea Interconnector) and the new electric highway between Greece and Germany, Green Aegean Interconnector. As stated in the preliminary plan, the planning for the GAI concerns a total transmission capacity of 3 GW and in the second year the further development to 6-9 GW.
The proposed route of the project, which has an initial budget estimate of 8.1 billion euros, involves an undersea crossing from Greece through the Adriatic to Slovenia, and then via an overland route to Austria and Southern Germany. Discussions are ongoing with the involved Transmission System Operators who have expressed their willingness to work together to mature the project.
A critical energy infrastructure being launched in the Eastern Mediterranean region is the Greece-Egypt GREGY electrical interconnection, which will allow the transfer of clean energy from North Africa to Europe, with Greece as the gateway.
