Greece-Egypt “GREGY” Interconnector Moving Ahead as Planned

The project to bring an underwater cable to carry electricity from Egypt to Greece, called the “GREGY – Elica Interconnector” is moving ahead as planned, according to reports at OT.gr.

The design, technical and investment studies of the GREGY cable project is run by a subsidiary of the Greek Copelouzos group, called ELICA SA.
GREGY has a budget of 4.2 billion euros, according to Copelouzos’ website, and aims to order transport electricity generated from wind and photovoltaic parks in Egypt to Europe.

The interconnector has been designed to link Egypt to Greece, but reports last month at energypress.eu note that Copelouzos group is considering splitting the route in two, just southwest of Crete, to bring Egypt’s green energy to Italy as well.

Reports at OT.gr note that Greece’s Independent Power Transmission Operator (IPTO), owner and operator of the Hellenic Electricity Transmission System (HETS), wants to participate in the project through a 33.3% stake in Copelouzos’ ELICA.

In addition to the cable, OT.gr notes that the Copelouzos group signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Masdar’s subsidiary, called Infinity Power, to explore the possibility of jointly developing renewable energy projects, with a capacity of 9.5GW, to supply green energy to the GREGY interconnector.

Masdar is a subsidiary of Mubadala Investment Company, the strategic investment company of the Government of Abu Dhabi that manages over 240 billion dollars in renewable energy project and clean technologies in many countries of the world.

The GREGY connector is considered to be of high importance to the EU and Egypt, which have previously made the following joint statement, “Given the new energy and geopolitical reality, the EU and Egypt recognize the need to strengthen energy security, and, therefore, have agreed to intensify their cooperation with a focus on renewable energy, energy efficiency, as well as other low-carbon technologies, building on Egypt’s significant potential for more efficient expansion of renewable electricity generation through projects such as the GREGY Interconnector.”

Greece also considers Egypt a key regional partner to address a wide range of issues and opportunities, and in connection to this, created a Supreme Cooperation Council between the two countries to support their collaboration.