Following the publication of the briefing note “Addressing the energy crisis: A halfway assessment of Greece’s performance on its European obligations“, Nikos Mantzaris spoke with Aspasia Vouzi on ERT 3 radio about the findings of the Green Tank’s analysis.
The aim of this analysis was to assess the country’s performance in terms of the urgent measures taken by the EU to address the energy crisis, namely (a) the reduction in gas consumption (-15% for the period August 2022 – March 2023); (b) the reduction in overall electricity consumption by 10% for the period November 2022 – March 2023 & (c) the reduction in electricity consumption during peak hours by 5% for the period December 2022 – March 2023.
As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine rapidly deteriorated the crisis in fossil gas and electricity prices which started to emerge in 2021, these measures were deemed necessary to ensure the energy sufficiency of the EU-27 in the challenging winter months. At the same time, according to the REPowerEU plan, all Member States are to drastically reduce their fossil gas consumption overall by 2030 and eliminate the dependence on Russian gas altogether by 2027.
As Nikos Mantzaris pointed out, the country’s performance so far has been positive, largely due to the development of renewable energy sources in electricity generation, as well as drastic changes in the consumers’ energy consumption patterns.
The discussion took place on Sunday February 12 2023 and is available on Green Tank’s YouTube channel (in Greek).
