DEDDIE

A wildfire that started outside Athens and made its way to the city, burning some 10,000 hectares of forest and scrubland along the way, started from a wooden power grid pylon, an experts' report released earlier in December says.

The passage of Storm Bora across the islands of Rhodes and Lemnos, as well as the Central Macedonia region, was devastating, with Civil Protection forces remaining on high alert to address the damage caused by torrential rains.

Australian-owned investment group Macquarie, which is well-known in Greece after acquiring 49% of DEDDIE, bought 50% of Enel Green Power Hellas to co-manage the renewable energy plants in operation and is focusing on financing Sea.

Greece's islands that are not connected to the national grid will require additional production capacity in the period 2024-2030, according to network operator DEDDIE's estimates in the new seven-year development program put out for public consultation by the energy regulator (RAAEY).

Grid operator DEDDIE has got some particularly worrying data on electricity theft, since the relevant costs are passed on to electricity bills.

In January-May this year, the power thefts detected by the DEDDIE crews increased by 50% compared to the corresponding period of 2023 and 2022.

Grid losses and power thefts in 2021 and 2022 have been ascertained by Greek power grid operator DEDDIE to amount to 500 million euros. The bill was sent to providers, which in turn are passing it on to consumers.

Therefore, while wholesale electricity prices are going down, consumers will see no benefit in April nor the next few months.

The Energy Ministry is preparing emergency measures to shield the grid and avoid blackout phenomena, as it has been found that transient events such as a lightning strike or smoke from a fire could even lead to a general blackout.

Greek power grid operator DEDDIE has secured a 150-million-euro loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB) to install 3.12 million smart meters, the first stage of a plan to upgrade Greece's distribution network, DEDDIE and EIB said on Tuesday.

Problems in the supply of electricity on non-interconnected islands have been considerable this summer after similar issues last year too.

The old production units are failing one after the other due to faults, while in many cases there are no spare parts - due to their age.

There are already 1,800 households on the starting line of the "Photovoltaics on Roofs" subsidies program, waiting for news of its launch.