Speaking at the 6th Renewable & Storage Forum, the Vice President and General Manager of Technology, System Development & Strategy of the Independent Power Transmission Operator (IPTO), Ioannis Margaris, referred to the need to adopt a new approach to the granting of access conditions to the electricity grid for new RES projects, due to investment interest.
“The framework that the country has had until now in terms of access to the System is outdated and we have to adapt the rules,” he emphasized. This means that the saturation framework in areas such as the Peloponnese, Crete and Evia must be revised.
Margaris underlined that the Final Connection Offers are the result of negotiation which requires time, involves financial and technical parameters and therefore requires attention from both sides – from the Operator and the investors. However, as he mentioned, the rate of RES access to the grid is very good, as it exceeds the goals for the coming years.
More specifically, as he said, the country’s “green” RES portfolio includes 32 GW of reserved electrical space, with 15 GW of projects in operation, 15 GW of projects with Final Connection Offers and 2 GW intended for Offshore Wind Farms, adding that the network development planning at the IP level predicts that the available electrical space in 2030 will reach 28 GW.
Referring to European Directive, which was revised last summer and should be incorporated into national law by January 2025, the Vice-President of the IPTO highlighted the need for legislative initiatives from the Ministry of Environment and Energy and relevant decisions from the Regulatory Authority, so that to establish a framework that protects both the electricity grid and its operation as well as investors.
He pointed out how in the new landscape of the cumulative input of RES, the IPTO has started in the last two years to adapt the process of examining the connection requests of new “green” energy producers, incorporating the so-called flexible connection offers. The specific model will provide for a power absorption commitment for a part and not for the whole of the “green” electricity generation, which investors will know from the beginning in order to make their decisions.
On this basis, he added that emphasis should be placed on the anxiety recorded in the market to speed up the process, as the provision of Definitive Connection Offers should keep pace with network growth and expansion.”
