Upon the invitation of the organisers the Chairman and Executive Director of IENE, Costis Stambolis, participated as keynote speaker in the 3d Renpower Greece conference organised by Euroconvention Global in Athens on June 30.Upon the invitation of the organisers the Chairman and Executive Director of IENE, Costis Stambolis, participated as keynote speaker in the 3d Renpower Greece conference organised by Euroconvention Global in Athens on June 30.
The Renpower series of conferences which are held regularly across Europe focus on the fast changing energy scene as supply needs differentiate and new forms of power generation, mostly Renewables, enter the picture.
Speaking in the opening session of the conference IENE’s chairman referred to the crucial role of the energy mix and how its understanding is helping us better assess the growing role of renewable energy sources. In his presentation, entitled “Understanding the Energy Mix, Key to the Development of RES in Greece and SE Europe” (here), Costis Stambolis explained the slow changes observed in the constitution of the region’s energy mix and how mineral resources still account for 82% for the gross inland energy consumption of the SE European region, including Turkey., based on 2019 data. However, if one looks at the power generation mix the picture is much different as renewables account for approx. 12 % of the gross island energy mix.
In the case of Greece RES have made strong and steady inroads in the country’s energy mix as they covered almost 20% of gross inland energy consumption in 2020 and a lot more when it comes to electricity. According to the figures presented renewables covered some 33% of power generation in 2019 while it is estimated that this figure in 2021 reached some 38% including large hydros. As the share of RES in the power generation mix is increasing thermal power stations using conventional fuels, i.e lignite and gas, are still highly important for the operation of the electricity system as they provide vital base load.
As Mr. Stambolis concluded in his presentation the scaling up of RES in Greece’s power generation mix and the phasing out of thermal stations would be difficult to achieve without recourse to large scale electricity storage systems including pumped storage schemes and battery systems. However, the national electricity grid is not yet ready to integrate storage systems on a large scale both from a legal framework point of view but also in terms of the technical arrangements that need to precede such a bold move.
