Greece added 1.59 GW of recent photo voltaic capability final yr, and projections for the present yr look sturdy. However, curtailment stays probably the most tough difficulty within the sector.
Greece’s transmission system operator, IPTO, stated they needed to cease importing electrical energy from neighboring nations from May 3 to May 7 to make sure the secure operation of Greece’s electrical energy system. Specifically, the IPTO stated throughout this era it didn’t import any electrical energy from Italy, Albania, North Macedonia and Turkey.
Regarding the electrical energy connection in Bulgaria, the IPTO doesn’t permit the import of electrical energy from 9 am to 4 pm on these days and imposes caps on different occasions.
Separately, market sources stated pv journal that on May 5, the IPTO disconnected your entire renewable-energy fleet related to the transmission traces for a couple of hours. It additionally requested Greece’s distribution operator, HEDNO, to disconnect an extra 1 GW of photo voltaic vegetation. The motive behind that is the very low demand for electrical energy when Greece celebrates the Orthodox Easter on May 5.
The renewable energy curtailment can also be very lengthy for the rest of the Easter vacation interval, which runs from May 3 to May 7. But the Easter vacation curtailment doesn’t come as a shock. Last April, Pantelis Biskas – a professor on the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece, Department of Electrical and Computing Engineering – warned the annual meeting of the Thessaloniki-based Pospief affiliation of photo voltaic producers in mid-April that the discount will increase at Easter, in addition to from September to November.
Biskas instructed traders that from March 1 to April 13, IPTO plans to supply 220 GWh of renewable power, which is equal to just about 4% of the nation’s home inexperienced electrical energy manufacturing for this era. This stage of restraint might sound small to some, however for Greek PV producers, it is rather completely different from earlier years. In 2023, for instance, Greece is obstructing a complete of about 228 GWh.
More worrying is Biskas’ prediction that the discount of renewable energy in Greece may attain as much as 15% of the nation’s electrical energy technology by 2023. Pospief’s meeting individuals additionally expressed concern about varied management methodology utilized by transmission and distribution grid operators in Greece.
IPTO can range the quantity of generated photo voltaic electrical energy injected into the grid, they declare, however distribution grid operator HEDNO doesn’t comply with the identical sample. HEDNO will permit photo voltaic parks to be plugged into the community, or fully reduce off from the distribution grid. Given that many photo voltaic tasks join on to the distribution grid, HEDNO patterns have an effect on many PV traders.
This drawback is ready to be solved quickly, nonetheless. A brand new legislation voted by the Greek parliament on the finish of April requires all renewable power vegetation bigger than 400 kW to put in technical tools that enables HEDNO to distant management of the output of photo voltaic tasks and alter the electrical energy injected into the distribution grid.
Of course, Pospief’s meeting dialogue additionally moved to power storage. Last yr, Greece launched a 1 GW power storage tender program. It factors to the batteries positioned in entrance of the meter. Awarded tasks will obtain public subsidy assist. However, Pospief General Secretary Petros Tsikouras stated pv journal that the Greek authorities’s power conservation coverage has moved within the improper path.
“It takes the federal government 4 years to introduce an power storage framework and when it does, it’s only allowed in entrance of power storage programs backed by the meter. On the opposite, Pospief referred to as the federal government open the power storage market behind the meter storage programs put in with out subsidies. There is a powerful funding urge for food in Greece for such programs. The enterprise case is already there such programs can take part within the nation’s balancing service market,” stated Tsikouras. “This is the place the principle difficulty lies. The authorities has delayed the power storage framework to permit gasoline vegetation sufficient time to get the advantages of the balancing service market. At some level, it should bow to the stress and permit behind-the-meter power storage to be inbuilt. Until then, the balancing companies market is dominated by gasoline vegetation They can change their manufacturing if they need. “
This content material is protected by copyright and might not be reused. If you wish to cooperate with us and wish to reuse a few of our content material, please contact: [email protected].