Greece: RAE officially closed two coal-fired power plants

Units 1 and 2 of coal-fired thermal power plant Kardia, as well as units 1 and 2 of TPP Amyntaio were officially closed by the Greek Regulatory Authority for Energy (RAE).

Installed capacity of these four units amounts to 1.2 GW and represents some 27 % of Greece’s total coal-fired capacity. The units of TPP Kardia were out of operation since June 2019, when they exhausted their allowed 17,500 operational hours in opt-out regime. Two units of TPP Amyntaio exhausted their allowed operational hours in November 2018, but remained in operated until May 2020 in order to provide district heating services. This is the first time since 2016, when units 3 and 4 of TPP Ptolemaida were erased for the license holder’s register, that lignite-fired units were officially retired, which is in line with Greece’s decarbonization efforts. According to agreed decarbonization schedule, PPC should close Kardia III and IV by the end of 2021. These will be followed by Agios Dimitrios I, II, III and IV, with a total capacity of 1,100 MW, in 2022. Their withdrawal will coincide with the entry of a new unit 610 MW Ptolemaida V unit, which is also lignite-fired, but will switch to alternative fuel after 2028. PPC is also scheduled to withdraw 260 MW Megalopoli IV, 290 MW Meliti I and 340 MW Agios Dimitrios V in 2023.