Santorini to join national grid

The plan for the fourth phase of an ongoing effort to hook up the Cycladic islands to the national power grid is expected to include Santorini.

According to the timetable of the Independent Power Transmission Operator (ADMIE), the tender for the linkup of the popular tourism destination in the Southern Aegean with the mainland network will begin by the end of this year, forming part of the ambitious, 10-year and 5-billion-euro project to connect Greek islands to the grid.

Santorini will be followed in the first half of 2021 by fellow Cycladic islands Serifos, Milos and Folegandros, after which the four-stage Cyclades connection project will be completed.

The timetable was presented on Naxos on Tuesday by ADMIE Chief Executive Officer Manos Manousakis, along with the launch of the island’s interconnection with Mykonos, completing the second stage of the project. This concerned the linkup of Naxos with Mykonos and nearby Paros.

Also part of the second phase was the upgrade of the lines from Evia to Andros and from Andros to Tinos, which was carried out in early 2020. The total budget of this stage comes to almost 400 million euros and the Energy Ministry has applied for part of that to be covered by the Next Generation EU fund.

Already out of the €439 million the first three stages at Cyclades have cost, €138 million have come from European Union resources. The fourth phase, covering the south Cyclades, will be the most costly, budgeted at €393 million.

Even more challenging will be the interconnection of the Dodecanese, expected to cost €1.5 billion and be completed by 2027, followed in 2029 by the islands of the Northern Aegean in a €885 million project. There also are the ongoing projects for the connection of Crete with Attica and the Peloponnese.

Interestingly, the Cyclades interconnections will create space of more than 300 megawatts from renewable energy sources, along with another 1,000 MW from Crete’s connections allowing for the transmission of green energy to and from Greece’s largest island, said the ADMIE chief. This, he noted, opens the way for the development of more wind parks.