Mr. John Chadjivassiliadis, Chairman of IENE, was among the speakers of the “Athens Energy Forum 2015 – Energy Security & Cooperation”, which took place on March 11-12, 2015, in Athens, organized by the International New York Times newspaperMr. John Chadjivassiliadis, Chairman of IENE, was among the speakers of the "Athens Energy Forum 2015 – Energy Security & Cooperation”, which took place on March 11-12, 2015, in Athens, organized by the International New York Times newspaper.
The Chairman of IENE took part in the panel entitled
"Renewable Energy Sources: How feasible is a low-carbon based economy?”. According
to Mr. Chadjivassiliadis, the power production in Greece has to move away from
fossil fuels and towards RES so that the country’s electricity sector can be friendlier
to the environment. He also stressed the importance of the Energy Union project
and of the formation of a unified European Energy Regulator, which will replace
the separate Regulatory Authorities of the 28 EU member-states.
However, as the Chairman of IENE pointed out, Greece has
fallen back towards those goals due to bureaucracy and lack of up-to –date
infrastructure. According to Mr. Chadjivassiliadis, Greece is in need of
"democratizing” its power generation sector and of developing key
interconnection infrastructure for both electricity and gas. The next step will
be a global interconnection of countries, especially in electricity, that have
already developed the suitable systems, in combination with implementing
security methods against cyber attacks.
Electricity grids need also to be protected from climate
change, a threat that, according to Mr. Chadjivassiliadis, is urgent for
Greece, due to the lack of modernization of its infrastructure. He also
referred to the need for expanding the present electricity interconnection with
Italy and also of speeding up the project of connecting the Cyclades with the
mainland of Greece.
Last but not least, the Chairman of IENE stressed the importance of connecting Crete with the mainland of Greece, a project however costly and difficult and yet necessary for the country. Mr. Chadjivassiliadis reminded that IENE carried out a study, two years ago, for the Greek Energy Regulator (RAE), but nothing has moved forward since and concluded that the project will be crucial for the electricity interconnection between Greece and Cyprus. As he underlined, stagnation on the energy field will only be at Greece’s loss, which falls behind all current developments that take place around the world.
