Greece’s Environment and Energy Minister George Stathakis said that a central power grid and an electricity interconnection between Crete and Peloponnese is about to begin and is expected to be completed in 2023.
Stathakis made the announcement during his speech at a conference yesterday organised by the Technical Chamber of Greece and added that energy investments in the country were expected to reach 32 billion euros by 2030.
The Minister added that Greece completed a period of deep reforms and noted that country was progressing in achieving its goals on Climate Change in the framework of the European Framework for 2030.
Stathakis said Greece was expected to begin the operation of an Energy Exchange in 2019, which will be combined with the liberalisation of bilateral contracts, adding that Greece will be transformed into an energy hub in the Balkans with the help of a series of large-scale investment plans such as the TAP pipeline, expected to be completed in 2020, and the vertical pipeline between Greece and Bulgaria (IGB).
New Democracy Vice-President Kostis Hatzidakis, addressing the conference, said that Greece needed to make a big transition, leaving behind the model of statism and poverty distribution and to move on with a new model of opportunities, creation and production.
"We are champions in overtaxation and last in growth," he noted.
