Who should cut gas use first?

Greek industries that are able to operate on alternative fuel will be the first to be asked to reduce their natural gas consumption in the event that the mandatory 15% reduction measure is activated, as provided by the European regulation for dealing with supply disruption situations.

At the opposite end are industries linked to the public health, safety, defense and environmental sectors. This category of businesses will be the last to be asked to implement the mandatory reduction measure, based on the prioritization of a total of eight groups of enterprises by the Regulatory Authority for Energy (RAE) out of a total of 104 sectors that requested an exemption from the mandatory 15% cut.

Sitting low in the hierarchy (in the seventh or penultimate group) are those industries to which a 15% reduction of consumption would serious disrupt their re-operation.

The...