In an announcement on 11th December, the Independent Power Transmission Operator (ADMIE) stated that over €700 million have been saved to date from the electrical connection of Crete with the Peloponnese. This means that the cost of the project has been amortised twice over in the space of just 4 1/2 years. According to the announcement, the first connection of Crete with the mainland system came online in July 2021, and since then has to a large extent replaced local generation by thermal units which run on diesel, with relatively low output, increased operating costs and higher pollutant emissions.
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The Chinese presence in Greece – updated*
Many Western countries in the past decade or so have transitioned from eagerly accepting cheap goods and investment from China without giving much thought to the consequences, to a degree of disengagement as a result of the PRC’s overt commercial and geopolitical expansionism, as well as anxieties over the security implications of Chinese dominance in the communications technology sector.
Continue readingCrete-Attica connection nearing completion
The planned cable link between Chania and Damasta which is currently generating a lot of heated reactions is designed, it will be remembered, to balance the load between the two undersea cables linking Crete with the Greek mainland. The first and smaller cable linking Nopigia with the Peloponnese being already in operation, the second, which links Damasta in Heraklion with Attica, is in the final stages and is expected to come into operation by the summer of 2025. This was announced in a press release published yesterday, 17th October, by ADMIE regarding the sale of part of Ariadne Interconnection, the ADMIE subsidiary which is carrying out the latter project:
Continue readingPylons over Apokoronas – the fight continues
Since we last reported on the matter in July, the battle against the installation of 269 electricity pylons carrying a 150 kVA transmission line from Chania to Damasta in Heraklion, traversing some of the most environmentally sensitive areas of the local countryside, has continued to be waged sporadically. Following the creation of a fighting committee – the “Apokoronas Initiative” – at the end of June by the cultural associations of the municipality of Apokoronas, a number of protest meetings have taken place. They have also taken aim at a parallel proposal to install six giant wind farms in different areas of the nomos of Chania with which, despite official disclaimers, the cable plan seems closely linked.
Continue readingPylons over Apokoronas update
The reactions against the plan by ADMIE to run overhead 150kV cables between Chania and the termination of the Crete Attica undersea connection at Damasta continue to reverberate through the local media, including accusations of bad faith on the part of the grid operator. However it appears that discussions are ongoing as to how the plan which has caused so much controversy can be improved, so as to minimise its environmental impact.
Continue readingElectricity pylons over Apokoronas
The penalties of going green
In the current moves towards “carbon neutrality” it is often forgotten that the means which need to be employed in “saving the planet” may themselves be less than environmentally friendly. One of the arguments fielded against the wholesale adoption of electric cars is that the extraction of the metals used in manufacturing batteries is in itself environmentally destructive and that the electricity used to charge them at present comes mainly from fossil fuel generating plants. There are concerns that their extra weight will cause degradation of infrastructure, increased air pollution from tyre particles, and so on.
Crete-Attica power connection under way
The most complex power transfer project in Greece, the Crete-Attica electricity interconnector, is fully under way, with the completion of construction and start of testing due at the end of 2024, and commercial operation in the summer of 2025. The work is being carried out by Ariadne Interconnection, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Greece’s Independent Power Transmission Operator (IPTO, or ADMIE in Greek).
Continue readingCrete-Attica cable laying under way
The start of cable-laying for the latest phase of the undersea connection between Crete and the Greek mainland was announced by the contractor on Monday 12th December. Carried out by Ariadne Interconnection, a subsidiary of the Greek grid management body ADMIE, the 335 km long 500kV DC cable linking Crete with Attica will mark the completion of the operation to connect the island with the mainland’s electricity grid. The “big connection” as it is commonly known, complements the “small connection” linking Kissamos with the Peloponnisos which was completed 18 months ago. The two between them are billed to permanently solve Crete’s electricity supply problems and at the same time allow the flow of power from Alternative Energy Sources (mainly wind and solar) from Crete to the mainland. They should also reduce energy bills for the Greek public, who currently pay a surcharge to ensure that electricity prices on Crete are no higher than those in the rest of the country.
According to the announcement, the cable, which weighs a total of 13,500 tons, will reach a maximum depth of 1,200 metres as it runs between Korakias in the nomos of Heraklion and Pachi Megaron in Attica. It is being laid by the ultra-modern cable laying ship Leonardo da Vinci, owned by the contractor Prysmian Powerlink. The operation, which is described as one of exceptional technical complexity, started at the beginning of December and is expected to to last about 9 weeks.
Following the completion of the Crete-Peloponnisos connection in July 2021, the ADMIE says it is proceeding on schedule with the country’s biggest power connection project to date. With a total budget of 1 billion euros, it is expected to be completed during the course of 2024. Of the undersea part of the project, the first 170 km of power cable have already been laid between Attica and Mylos, as well as the the complete run of fibre-optic cables with a length of 670 km.
At the Attica end, the laying of the underground cable sections is already under way, while work has begun on the foundations of the transformer stations to be built at either end of the connection, at Damasta, Heraklion, and at Aspropirgo in Attica.
The chairman and managing director of ADMIE, Manos Manousakis, told APE-MPE: “The ADMIE and its subsidiary Ariadne Interconnection are taking another important step towards the completion of the ‘big’ connection between Crete and Attica, carrying out one of the most demanding undersea cable-laying operations in the world. The second electrical connection of Crete with the mainland will bolster the island’s electricity supply, liberate its renewable capacity and strengthen its position on the energy map of Greece and the Eastern Mediterranean.”
The Works director of Ariadne Interconnection Angelos Stamatelos said: “Following the successful laying of the first section of the electrical cable between Crete and Attica, Ariadne Connection is proceeding with the installation of the second high-tension cable. During the next six months the subsidiary of ADMIE will have completed the installation of all the undersea cables and will concentrate on the equally vital terrestrial portion of the project.”
(Haniotika Nea 13th December)