Energy and water companies in SE Europe

The company’s president, Agis Papadopoulos, spoke from the stage of the annual regional meeting of IENE on the energy agenda in SE Europe.

The president of EYATH clarified that “our company is of high energy cost, as this varies between 25% and 30% of the total operating costs depending on the prices, therefore the cost of energy and its environmental footprint are of major importance to us”. He pointed out that “we live in uncertain times with climate change, which for utilities like ours is not an abstract thing.” Drought, floods, the need to upgrade the older infrastructure, high capital costs are problems facing the industry according to Mr. Papadopoulos, with the issue of sustainability of course being the focal point. “In an area where the demand for water in the summer due to tourism is multiple times the base load, managing the available water is not a simple matter and obviously has a cost,” explained the president of EYATH. “The good news is the reduction in the cost of RES and the new commercial forms of their exploitation, such as PPAs, which allow for a stability in the pricing policy on a medium-term basis. Also, EYATH has specialized staff that can easily adapt to the changes of the times, because changes from people are implemented with a change in corporate culture. The bad news is that all of this comes at a cost! And when we talk about energy efficiency or RES, we should focus on whether society is willing to pay the cost, because there should be an assurance that the initial capital will be repaid in a reasonable period of time. As a utility, we seek to spread costs over time, but we also have the luxury of working in an environment with a regulated pricing policy. So let’s speed up the modernization of infrastructure, invest in energy, but let’s see how this will be done, with what resources, who will pay, so that we can have realistic results”, concluded Mr. Papadopoulos.

Energy security, geopolitical and diplomatic priorities, but also the transition to clean forms of energy in SE Europe and beyond were at the center of this year’s 15th South East Europe Energy Dialogue (SEEED), organized for another year by the Energy Institute of South East Europe (IENE), in Thessaloniki. The 15th SEEED of IENE was held under the auspices of the Greek Ministry of Energy and Environment, bringing together more than 45 speakers and moderators from SE European countries.