2023 will be the “milestone” year for the implementation of “green” investments in the field of energy storage. In particular, it is expected that the first tender will be held by the end of next year, in order to “lock in” the operational and investment support for energy storage units, which must be implemented by the end of 2025. This was stated yesterday by the president of the Regulatory Authority for Energy (RAE), Mr. Athanasios Dagoumas, speaking at the workshop “Energy Storage and Grid Management for Maximum RES Use” organized by the Energy Institute of Southeast Europe.

A few days ago, the European Commission approved the Greek government’s proposal to support the implementation of energy storage projects with a capacity of 900 MW.

Under state aid rules, €341 million will be allocated to grid-connected electricity storage systems in the form of an investment grant during the construction phase of the project, followed by annual support during the first ten years of operation. The specific funds will be “locked” through tenders, in which the investors who submit the lowest bids for the energy they will offer will qualify. The financing is valued at 380,000 euros/MW (megawatt).

Funds from the Recovery Fund

The projects will be funded, in part, by the Recovery and Resilience Fund. According to Mr. Dagoumas, the annual support for each project will be assessed and adjusted through a clawback mechanism if the energy storage units generate excess revenue from the market.

Separately, the Recovery and Resilience Fund will finance TERNA’s pumped storage project in Amfilochia. The unit with a capacity of 680 megawatts (MW) will be directly connected to high-voltage transmission lines. The aid will take the form of a €250 million investment grant and annual support – funded by a levy on electricity suppliers – to achieve an acceptable rate of return on investment.

More generally, by July 2022, RAE had licensed 337 licenses with a total capacity of 23.5 GW concerning energy storage units and hybrid projects, i.e. RES (Renewable Energy Sources) systems with energy storage. Most of the licenses concerned autonomous battery systems and were issued between January 2021 and July 2022. The Authority, as Mr. Dagoumas pointed out, strongly supports and implements the removal of regulatory barriers to their participation in the electricity market.

Deadline by September 30

The Authority also favors transparency and has therefore given a deadline until tomorrow (30/09/2022) to the Network Operators (IPTO and HEDNO) to make the list of applications for connection terms public, based on a specific template given to them by RAE.

In particular, they are invited to categorize the projects based on their type – i.e. fast track, projects implemented within the framework of the Just Development Transition Plan in the areas under delignitization, with a producer’s certificate, etc. -, their location, the type of investment ( photovoltaic, wind, hydroelectric, biomass, storage, pumped storage, etc.), in the order of priority, etc. If the specific list is not published, as the head of RAE said yesterday, the hearing procedure for the imposition of fines will be initiated.

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