Energy “bets”

The need to change the economic and social model in the energy sector, so that “we consume less and more expensive energy with the same result”, pointed out the president of EYATH S.A., Agis Papadopoulos, participating in the Voria.gr panel on the topic “Big projects and energy infrastructures in Northern Greece”.

“Abundant and cheap energy is over. If we want to save the planet, we have to pay a high price. Who will pay for it has two dimensions. It concerns us as consumers, but also as national economies at European level. Europe is not an island, if it is left alone, it risks finding itself at a competitive disadvantage,” said Mr. Papadopoulos and spoke about the importance of international agreements, such as those discussed at COP28. “Where will we find the resources for energy efficiency investments? And it’s not just financial resources. The necessary equipment should also be produced, but without deindustrializing Europe, as well as having the necessary technical personnel”, said Mr. Papadopoulos.

“The operation of a company that covers water supply and sewerage services, such as EYATH, is extremely energy-intensive. We are a high energy intensive company. We consume approximately 116 GWh of electricity annually, which with the prices of 2022 translates is approximately 30 million euros, when a year ago we were at 14 million euros”, he emphasized in relation to the operational costs. The latter is, as he said, the first public company that has entered into a bilateral green energy supply contract (PPAs), to reach 100 GWh from wind and photovoltaic parks, which, in addition to reducing costs, will also have obvious reduction in the company’s carbon footprint. “We had a goal of reducing our carbon footprint by 50% by 2030, but with PPAs we will achieve it much earlier and in a much larger percentage”, he noted, pointing out that energy saving requires time, high expertise and capital. “A company, in order to save energy, must rationalize the way it operates, take advantage of new technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and of course see if it can produce the same energy in order to reduce its dependence,” he said. “At EYATH, within two years, we have managed to reduce energy consumption by 9.2% and without major investments”, concluded Mr. Papadopoulos.

Her conclusions from her participation in the works of the 28th United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Dubai (COP28) were presented, in the same panel, by the Deputy Minister of Environment and Energy, Alexandra Sdoukou, pointing out that at the moment there is at least the international awareness that serious efforts should be done to achieve climate neutrality. “We want high penetration rates of RES and to definitely take care of energy storage, the next big thing”, as he said. “Our goal is for 80% of electricity to be covered by RES by 2030,” noted Mrs. Sdouko.