Greek transmission operator to introduce measures for fair curtailments

The Greek renewable energy market faces growing curtailments until 2030 even if the National Energy and Climate Plan’s (NECP) storage goals are met.

It was the message from renewable energy associations during a recent event, organized by the Regulatory Authority for Waste, Energy and Water (RAAEY) in Thessaloniki, which focused mainly on curtailments.

HELAPCO: Curtailments reached 3.5% of renewable electricity production this year

According to Greek photovoltaic union POSPIEF’s Chairman Giannis Panagis, this year curtailments are expected to reach 1,000 GWh, since they already stood at 530 GWh in July. Notably, current curtailments equal the power consumption of 600,000 small households in the country.

Curtailments amounted to 3.5% of renewable electricity production in the first seven months, said the Hellenic Association of Photovoltaic Companies’ (HELAPCO) Chairman Sotiris Kapellos.

Since no new storage is expected to come online before September 2025, the situation is expected to worsen in the next 12 months, as new renewable electricity projects keep connecting to the grid.

A study by the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (APTH) has found that each consumer would lose EUR 17 as a result of curtailments. In the following years, the total cost is projected to increase to between EUR 218 million and EUR 243 million per year.

Measures to tackle unfair aggregator practices

Aggregators are entities through which renewable electricity plants can be represented and fully integrated into electricity markets. Each has a portfolio of small producers, usually connected to the distribution grid.

According to the Independent Transmission System Operator (IPTO or Admie), which supervises the balancing market, aggregators systematically take advantage of current rules to bolster their profit.

They keep a portion of their day-ahead portfolio production outside their declarations in order to use it the following day in the balancing market. IPTO then steps in and imposes curtailments, since the system does not need all that electricity. However, the country’s transmission system operator can only curtail renewable plants outside of the said scheme.

Specifically, IPTO has technical means to curtail the operations of units operating in the transmission grid, and not in the power distribution system. Hellenic Distribution System Operator (HEDNO) has asked plant owners to install control systems to be able to curtail them, too, but the process takes time.

Based on the above, IPTO decided to change the rules to obtain control over production declarations in the day-ahead market.