RAE chooses to ignore Brussels on Crete interconnection

Greece’s energy regulator has opted to sidestep the European Commission and appointed a subsidiary of state grid operator ADMIE to fund and construct the power interconnection between Attica and Crete.

This is a high-risk decision that may have legal consequences for the project, and lead to more delays than those it is trying to avoid.

The Regulatory Authority for Energy (RAE) has ignored the European Commission’s decision that considers the Greek watchdog’s decision of September 10, conceding the interconnection to the Independent Power Transmission Regulator (ADMIE), as inconsistent with the European framework. Brussels has demanded its retraction. Instead RAE has gone a step further and issued a new decision that appoints ADMIE subsidiary Ariadne Interconnection as the entity to finance and realize the power project.

The decision was published late on Monday and RAE claims that it was based on the immediate need for the implementation of the linkup of Greece’s biggest island with the mainland after a “huge and unjustified delay to the realization of the project.”

Ariadne will replace EuroAsia Interconnector, which had previously been chosen to implement this particular leg of the broader Greece-Cyprus-Israel interconnection.