Next September, the Hellenic Gas Transmission System Operator will be able to submit to the Regulation Authority for Energy the new ten-year growth plan of the National Natural Gas System for the years 2022-2030.
According to information, the administration of DESFA is currently drafting the relevant plan, consisting of new and existing projects, for the expansion or the upgrade of the national system so as to tackle the climate change.
The same sources want that one of the new projects concerns the extension of the National Natural Gas System to Epirus.
The project investigates the building of a pipeline that will be about 220 km long from Ptolemaida to Ioannina, so that the natural gas reaches Epirus and the aforementioned pipeline will be connected to distribution networks for the supply of households and businesses.
But beyond this solution, the management of DESFA is studying a second scenario for the transfer of fuel to Epirus. It investigates, according to the same information, the construction of a liquefied natural gas storage and regasification station in the port of Igoumenitsa, in Thesprotia. There will arrive ships with LNG which will unload liquefied gas in the tank and, then, the fuel will reach Ioannina, through a pipeline of about 50 km.
On top of that, DESFA leaves open the possibility for the building of virtual gas pipelines that will reach the islands. Although the Regulation Authority for Energy rejected, about a year ago, the proposals of the Operator for Crete and the islands of the North Aegean, company sources do not rule out the possibility that negotiations for the transfer of gas to Epirus will start again.
In this context, yesterday, the Director of Strategy and Development Division at DESFA SA, Michael Thomadakis, during his speech at the 5th Cretan Energy Conference, stressed that “DESFA is not leaving Crete”. He, also, proposed the utilization of the island’s agricultural waste for the production of biomethane in order for the energy needs of the island to be covered with “green” gas.
