Small Greek investors in renewables face cancellations of projects on distribution level

The Hellenic Electricity Distribution Network Operator (HEDNO) stopped accepting applications for renewable energy plants in 2022 as a result of the distribution network’s inability to handle new installations.

Lately, a new obstacle has appeared for small investors aiming to connect to the distribution grid. Last month, HEDNO began to cancel applications from 2019 as five-year deadlines expired.

It is expected to affect thousands of projects currently in the waiting line and create a licensing gap as month after month more applications will be cancelled. Small investors are asking the government for an extension to be able to materialize their plans.

They argue that they already paid large sums, EUR 20,000 to EUR 40,000 per project through the procedure for their letters of intent and other regulatory requirements, and undertaken significant risk.

EUR 539 million to upgrade substations

Recently, HEDNO published its new five-year development plan for public consultation. According to the latest data, at the beginning of 2024 there were 7.5 GW of operational renewable energy plants connected to the country’s distribution grid. Most (around 6 GW) are found in the mid-voltage segment, and the rest in low voltage.

The vast majority of the capacity are photovoltaics (5.95 GW) while wind power reached 1.08 GW and small hydroelectric plants amounted to 252 MW.

Manos: National goals cannot be achieved without grid investments

HEDNO aims to spend EUR 539 million on new user connections by 2028. More specifically, the company plans to upgrade 14 substations using funds from the European Union’s Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) and 18 others with its own funds, as well as to support the installation of two private substations.

Furthermore, substations in congested areas are intended to be upgraded from 7.2 kA to 10 kA after the completion of relevant studies.

National goals in renewable energy production and electric mobility will not be achieved without investing in grids, HEDNO’s CEO Anastasios Manos warned in April.