The Greek Ministry of Energy, due to the extent of damage taken by recent fires, as well as heavy snowfall during winter, has taken measures to clear the way of any possible bureaucratic delays and is also seeking to secure additional funds for the replacement of overhead power lines with underground infrastructure.
This includes measures, such as facilitating power line undergrounding by operators through forest land without them having to wait for approval from forestry officials. As a result, electricity transmission and distribution operators ADMIE and DEDDIE can now proceed with power line undergrounding projects without delay or cancellation risks. This applies for both new power line networks and replacement of older ones.
EU Recovery and Resilience Facility will provide a total of 187 million euros for power line projects. However, given the average cost of power line network undergrounding of some 85,000 euros per kilometer, the funds will be enough for just 2,200 kilometers, which is just a tiny fraction of the country’s existing overhead power lines.
