April 6, 2025

by AEA in News

Greece awards 188.9 MW for subsidized battery storage in final auction

Greece’s third energy storage auction has been completed with nine projects selected.

It was the final auction where the state provides subsidies to build battery energy storage systems (BESS). A total of almost 800 MW in capability has been awarded through all three storage auctions.

In the latest bidding, nine projects with a four-hour storage duration have been selected for a total capacity of 188.9 MW.

HELLENiQ Energy and PPC are biggest winners

HELLENiQ Renewables and government-controlled Public Power Corp. (PPC) were the biggest winners, with two plants of 25 MW and one 50 MW plant, respectively. The rest of the list comprises Amber Energy (18 MW), Plain Solar (7.9 MW), Enercoplan (25 MW), Arkadia Storage (10 MW), Heliothema (10 MW) and Ardassa Energy (18 MW).

The facilities will be installed in the Western Macedonia region in northern Greece and in the municipalities of Megalopolis, Tripoli, Gortynia and Oichalia in the Peloponnese region. They are the country’s lignite regions, covered by the Just Transition Development Plan.

The investments will benefit from a public grant of EUR 200,000 per MW and they must now submit a letter of guarantee for EUR 35,000 per MW within the next three months.

Average price rises

As for the average price, it landed at EUR 52,589.16 per MW per year in the auction. The lowest offer was EUR 43,927 per MW, by HELLENiQ Renewables, while the highest was EUR 58,773 per MW, by Plain Solar.

The average prices in the first and second auctions were EUR 49,748 per MW and EUR 47,680 per MW.

It should be pointed out that from now on, new facilities in the sector will operate commercially and get income strictly from the market. The Ministry of Environment and Energy has already published a decree setting the rules for the installation of 4.7 GW of new battery systems until 2030.

Investors are getting ready for future auctions. They will submit their applications to the Regulatory Authority for Energy, Waste and Water (RAEWW or RAAEY). Only last month, applications in the segment reached almost 1.5 GW, showing an enormous interest.

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April 3, 2025

by AEA in News

Greek companies expand to Bulgaria with solar power investments

Greece’s government-controlled power utility PPC and Masdar’s subsidiary Terna Energy are separately building two photovoltaic plants in Bulgaria, worth an estimated EUR 190 million in total.

The biggest two renewable energy companies in Greece have taken over one major project each in neighboring Bulgaria, where domestic investors dominated the photovoltaics market until recently. Soon after government-controlled Public Power Corp. (PPC) said it began building a 165 MW solar power plant with batteries, Capital reported that Terna Energy plans to complete a 130 MW project by the end of next year.

The segment appears saturated, given the lack of energy storage capacities in Bulgaria to balance high PV output at times of abundant sunshine. Permits that the Sustainable Energy Development Agency (SEDA) issued show 4 GW in overall installed solar power capacity. Nevertheless, Executive Director of Electricity System Operator (ESO) Angelin Tsachev estimated there is as much as 5 GW, the media outlet noted.

In its annual statistics update, the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) said Bulgaria hosted 3.9 GW of PV capacity at the end of 2024.

Terna Energy bought out initial developer one year ago

Terna Energy became a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi Future Energy Co. (Masdar) last year. The Greek company entered the ownership of the project firm Bio PD Solar Energy for the 130 MW facility three years ago with a 25% stake.

In mid-2024, Terna Energy Overseas Ltd., registered in Cyprus, became the sole owner. It invested some EUR 25 million and bought out Helios Construction Project. According to the article, the previous parent company is associated with businessman Ahmed Dogan. He was the founder and long-time leader of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms party, representing Muslim minorities.

Both projects are on municipal land

The project spanning more than 200 hectares was initially planned at 180 MW. The lot is on municipal land in Kameno in eastern Bulgaria.

According to the news website, the investment amounts to EUR 92 million. The location near the village of Vratitsa isn’t subject to an environmental impact assessment study except for the intended construction of a 33/110 kV substation.

Terna Energy said its former affiliate Terna, part of the GEK Terna conglomerate, is building the solar power plant in Burgas province.

New hybrid power plant in Bulgaria is part of PPC’s regional expansion

PPC is building its PV plant in the Chirpan municipality in Stara Zagora province. Having included a battery energy storage system in the project, and given the power links with its assets in Romania and Greece, the company is counting on a strategic advantage in the market with the new hybrid facility. PPC is pursuing major expansion in the region, including Italy.

The investment is valued at EUR 97 million, of which the energy storage segment accounts for EUR 10.2 million to EUR 12.8 million, the article adds.

The Colosseum site consists of 11 municipal properties formerly designated as agricultural land, on 200 hectares altogether. PPC bought the project from Enery. The company is headquartered in Austria and active in the renewables sector in Romania as well.

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June 8, 2016

by AEA in News

Greece to launch tender for power grid operator end June

Greece’s main power utility will formally launch the sale of a stake in its power grid operator ADMIE in June, a step towards opening up its electricity market and complying with the terms of its international bailout.

PPC controls almost 95 percent of the Greek retail market and must reduce this to below 50 percent by 2020 under its third bailout.

Greece has also promised to sell up to 24 percent in ADMIE, a grid of more than 11,000 km of high-voltage power cables which is fully owned by PPC.

PPC’s Chairman and Chief Executive Manolis Panagiotakis said on Wednesday the tender process is expected to start at the end of the month and conclude in October. He said however that it was important that it remained under state control.

“The launch of the tender will be approved by the general assembly (on June 30) and will be published a few days later,” Panagiotakis told Reuters on the sidelines of a press briefing.

“We hope that it will be concluded by mid-October and that there will be interest from investors.”

Earlier, he said that it was important that PPC received ‘just compensation’.

Greece has tried to sell PPC before. Soon after winning parliamentary elections, Greece’s leftist Syriza government froze the process, but later pledged that to keep the asset at least partly state-controlled.

Panagiotakis called conditions “adverse and unprecedented”.

Owed about 2.5 billion euros ($2.8 billion) in unpaid bills after Greece’s deep recession, the company has announced a 15 percent tariff cut for customers who pay consistently on time, a move which may crimp revenues.

Panagiotakis could not estimate the exact impact and said it could be ‘negligible’.

However the company was optimistic that collection of overdue payments would improve overall and that state arrears would be settled after the disbursement of fresh bailout loans expected this month.

ADMIE planned to invest in Albania’s electricity market, he said, and would also revise costs and take investment and business initiatives.

PPC reported a 10 percent rise in first-quarter core profit, helped by energy savings from declining oil prices and lower provisions for unpaid bills. It plunged into loss last year as it set aside hundreds of millions of euros to cover the unpaid bills. ($1 = 0.8793 euros)