Project for Alexandroupolis power plant focusing on exports to Balkans
Alexandroupolis plays a key geopolitical, energy, and development role and will continue to do so, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said in his address at the inauguration of the project to build the city's gas-fired power production unit on Saturday.
Mitsotakis is wrapping up a two-day tour of eastern Macedonia and Thrace.
The unit will have a capacity of 840 MW and be built jointly by the Public Power Corporation (51%), DEPA Commercial (29%), and Kopelouzos Group (20%).
It will "increase our capacity to produce electricity, reducing electricity imports, but mostly increasing exports," Mitsotakis said, adding that "our ambition is to become an energy security producer for our neighbors in the Balkans."
The unit will cost 400,000,000 euros, will employ 800 staff, and will gradually hire 100 managers. It is expected to be operational in 32 months. Along with the Floating Storage and Regasification Unit expected to be ready in 2024, the two projects will be "a double dynamic step toward the energy era's future," he noted.
The new unit will be constructed at a strategic point (Alexandroupolis Industrial Area), where several natural gas infrastructural works and international power connector networks meet. It will connect to the Ultra-High Voltage Center of IPTO (Independent Power Transmission Operator) of Greece at Nea Santa, where the second Bulgaria-Greece line ends up (Nea Santa-Maritsa East), a European project that will raise both countries' transmission capacity to 1400 MW (from Greece to Bulgaria) and 1700 MW (from Bulgaria to Greece).
According to data released so far, the unit is expected to have a 63% efficiency rating, which means lower cost and fuel consumption, as well as lower carbon dioxide emissions.
AMNA
