Greece’s Plan B in case of power blackout

Greece is considered one of the EU countries with the best preparation for energy sufficiency.

Thus, as officials responsible for the country’s security of supply note, but also according to official government assurances, households and businesses, at least for this winter, will not face particular problems in their electricity supply even in the extreme scenario of a natural gas supply interruption in the rest of Europe .

At the same time, the Regulatory Authority for Energy-RAE and the Independent Power Transmision Operator-IPTO have also drawn up Plan B so that if the need arises to take measures to limit the supply of electricity (rotating electricity supply to consumers).

In particular, Greece is one of the countries with the most diversified sources of energy supply. It is supplied with Russian natural gas by the TurkStream pipeline that crosses the Black Sea, passes through Turkey, ends up in Bulgaria and from there the fuel reaches Greece. In addition to this pipeline, it also receives smaller quantities from the TAP pipeline, while the LNG terminal in Revythoussa has emerged as the main source of supply. In fact, the terminal also supplies Balkan countries for which Moscow has closed the valves of the pipelines that arrive via Ukraine.

Among the additional measures taken by the government is the addition of a floating LNG tank which increases the storage capacity of Revythoussa. The operation of the FSU increases the storage capacity of the Revythoussa station from 225,000 sq m to around 370,000 sq m, i.e. an increase of around 70%. In the first nine months of the year, the terminal covered 42.62% of imports, Russian gas accounted for 35.7%, while 19.16% of the quantities entered Greece from TAP.

In addition, the government proceeded to double the lignite production so that the lignite units could increase the electricity production by replacing part of the electricity amounts from the natural gas plants. In addition, gas units with the ability to operate with diesel are on hand so that, if necessary, quantities of natural gas can be saved.

In addition to these, DEPA Commercial made an agreement with French TotalEnergies ensuring LNG quantities of 10 TWh, i.e. the quanityt consumed in the winter season.

In the extreme scenario of the creation of suffocating energy security conditions, Plan B of the RAE and IPTO initially foresees electricity cuts in non-urban areas and industries, so that households and small businesses are not left without electricity. Depending on the severity of the situation, rotating electrification is not excluded. However, in such an eventuality, the planning foresees that hospitals and critical infrastructures for safety and the economy are not left without electricity.