CTO Assessment - European Commission

Action Plan for Large
Scale Deployment of
RES in Crete
Contact: Dr. Nikolas Zografakis •Regional Energy Agency of Crete
Kountourioti Sq. • 712 02, Heraklion • Crete • Greece
Tel: +30 81 224 854 • Fax: +30 81 343 873
E-mail: enrg_bur@crete-region.gr
Crete is fourth largest island in the
Mediterranean, with an area of 8335 km 2 .
Tourism is the most dynamic activity in the
island (more than 3 millions tourists in
2000) and economic growth rates double
the national average.
Because of a net increasing population
trend in recent years, of a high growth rates
in economy, as well as of fast development
of a tertiary sector (mainly the seasonal
tourism), Crete faces problems of high
rates of electricity and mainly of power
demand (8% per year compared to 4% of
the national average). Additionally there
is a reluctance of the population to accept
the installation of new thermal power
stations.
For the above reasons, the project of largescale
RES development has a particular
importance in Crete, where it exemplifies
an important part of the island issues.
The initiative
The Region of Crete – through the
proposals of its Regional Energy Agency –
has adopted since 1999 an integrated
energy policy and programming, which
gives particular emphasis on the RES and
RUE promotion and implementation.
The Regional Energy Agency of Crete and
the National Technical University of
Athens have formulated the
“Implementation Plan for RES in Crete”.
The defined Implementation Plan for the
period 1998 – 2010 is focused on the
exploitation of RES for electricity
production, is formulated on the basis of
available RES potential, on the technical
constraints for the RES penetration and
on the existing legislative framework.
The objectives of the Implementation Plan
are:
to cover the additional electricity demand
in a sustainable way
to cover the maximum average net hourly
production,
to provide the electrical system with an
adequate safety margin
to require the minimum interventions to
the existing grid, and
to use the most mature and cost-effective
RES technologies.
Short-term actions refer to the period
1998-2005 and medium-term actions to
the period 2005-2010. The plan promotes
electricity production by exploiting several
RES technologies (wind farms, biomass,
small hydroelectric units, photovoltaic
installations, pumped storage units) at a
maximum possible penetration rate in
order to cover the increase of electricity
demand. Moreover it suggests additional
actions among at electricity savings (solar
hot water systems, replacement of
incandescent bulbs, passive and hybrid
systems for cooling, time-zone pricing
system, etc.). The strategy of the Action
Plan is complemented by a number of
initiative regarding demand side
management for the period 1998-2010,
with a special incidence in the tourist and
Electricity Production
Maximum figures
Energy demand (GWh)
1. Conventional
2. RES
2.1.Wind Parks
2.2. Biomass Units
2.3. Small Hydro-Electric Units
2.4. Photovoltaic Installations
2.5. Pumped Storage Units
Safety Margin
Total non-intermittent sources (MW)
Mean Net Power of Conventional Units(MW)
Mean Net Power of RES (MW)
1. Wind parks (MW)
2.Biomass units with agricultural by products (MW)
3. Small Hydro-Electric units (MW)
4. Photovoltaic installations (MW)
5. Pumped-Storage units (MW)
residential sectors.
With the implementation of this plan the
total RES electricity production could
reach 39.4% in 2005 and 45.4% in 2010.
Enabling factors
The region of Crete has developed an
energy policy, which has been unanimously
approved by the Regional Council and has
its full support, as well as the support of
relevant national authorities: Ministries for
Development and National Economy, and
Public Power Corporation (PPC).
Replication
The Crete Action Plan was used as a model
to start similar projects, especially those
dealing with European island regions. At
present Crete is working, together with
other island territories, on a feasibility
analysis for storage solutions that could
allow increasing the rate of penetration of
renewables, in particular with regard to
wind-hydropower solutions.
2000 2006 2010
1,815 2,484 2,700
1,470 1,508 1,474
345 976 1,226
223 499 624
120 238 356
2 25 27
0.2 2 5
0.0 211 213
21% 36% 20%
491 717 776
469 546 585
110.2 373 445
89.3 200 250
20 40 60
0.6 6 6
0.2 2 4
— 125 125
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