Greece’s Elektroprivreda PPC has increased lignite production by an additional 5,000 tonnes to 6,000 tonnes a day for its Meliti and Agios Dimitrios power plants in northern Greece and an additional 7,000 to 8,000 tonnes a day for the Megalopoli power plant in the Peloponnese. April to increase lignite reserves in the event of a disruption in Europe’s supply of Russian natural gas.
The goal is to increase lignite exploitation by 45 to 50 percent over a two-year period to provide reserves of over 15 million tons, compared to the current 10.5 million tons. This would enable lignite-based electricity production to reach 6.5 TWh per year, compared to 4.5 TWh envisaged by the current energy plan.
Of the country’s seven lignite-fired power plants, only one, Agios Dimitrios IV, was due to operate on Tuesday.
These additional 2 TWh of lignite-based electricity will still not be enough in the event that Russia stops supplying natural gas to Europe.
Annual electricity consumption in Greece is estimated at 55 TWh. Last year, gas production covered 20 TWh of total demand in the country and Russia supplied 40% of natural gas for electricity production.
This means that Russian natural gas enabled the production of 8 TWh of electricity in Greece last year. The plan for an additional 2 TWh based on lignite would replace only 25% of the electricity currently produced from natural gas.
Additional LNG supplies, accelerated development of RES projects and energy saving policies for households, companies and industry will also be needed to bridge this gap.
Source: energypress.eu
