Power supply uncertainty
Not all consumers should take their electricity for granted at peak times this winter
Electricity supply should not be taken for granted for everyone this winter, at least from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. between November and March.
The same will most likely apply during some morning hours and this is because the country, based on the binding regulation of the European Commission, will have to proceed with a mandatory reduction of electricity demand by 5% during peak hours.
An additional indicative and non-binding target is to reduce consumption by 10% by March 2023 compared to last year. According to Brussels, this would lead to lower prices and allow for a 3.8% reduction in natural gas consumption in power generation.
Greece starts the exercise with a significant advantage: the reduction of electricity consumption well above the indicative target of 10% (reaching 13%) in July compared to the same month last year.
The going will get tough with the objective of the mandatory reduction by at least 5% during peak hours, a complex and intractable exercise, since there is no way of hourly counting among the largest bunch of consumers, who represent low-voltage consumption – i.e. households and small businesses, which comprise approximately 65% of total demand.
Things would be quite simple had smart meters been installed, a project of about 1 billion euros which has been dragging on since 2014.
The contribution of households to the savings target will be sought through incentives, namely an increased subsidy on the electricity bill when they limit consumption by 15% compared to the corresponding month of 2021. That is technically difficult to measure, as government officials know, but after the interventions of the relevant directorate of the Commission, they are obliged to link the subsidies to a reduction of consumption.
Therefore it is up to energy-intensive industry and large commercial enterprises, which collectively account for 35% of demand (10% by large industries connected to the high-voltage grid and about 25% by industries and commercial enterprises with large consumption on the medium-voltage network).
