Greece to work with Romania, Bulgaria to fight surging power prices, minister says

Athens: Greece’s energy minister said on Monday the unified EU electricity market was not working for southeastern Europe, and that it would work with Romania and Bulgaria towards a permanent solution to soaring power prices in the region.

Greece has been getting nearly half of its energy from solar and wind parks at low prices, but like other nations in southern Europe it has seen a periodic surge in prices during the warm summer months when demand for air conditioning is high and power supply from other interconnected countries is short.

“Power links are not enough to carry power from the central European market to the southeastern one. This leads to extreme prices on some days, something that cannot be accepted,” Energy Minister Theodore Skylakakis told a Greek radio station on Monday.

He said the target model for a unified EU electricity market was not working. The Greek prime minister is expected to send a letter to the European Commission on the issue this week.

In a statement the energy ministry said a joint initiative is being taken by the Greek, Bulgarian and Romanian energy ministers to create “a permanent intervention mechanism whenever extreme prices are recorded, due to the cut-off of southeastern Europe from the rest of the European energy market”.

The conservative government last month extended a windfall tax on energy companies to finance power subsidies for consumers struggling with the rising energy cost.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Sunday that his government will continue doing so for as long as European authorities failed to tackle the problem.