The real cost of the so-called «subsidies» for electricity

«Cowards, fools, and fools all at once!"

»Perhaps we are hoping for a miracle!"

The above verses by Kostas Varnalis were written exactly a century ago, but they perfectly capture what we are experiencing in this theater of the absurd that has been playing out in the electricity markets for over a year now. The «doomed» are, of course, both the Greek government and the governments of other EU countries, which made their electricity generation dependent on Russian natural gas supplies, primarily through the twin Nord Stream I & II pipelines. The EU imported 140–150 billion cubic meters of gas from Russia each year, and 110 of those would pass through these specific pipelines. Instead of passing mainly through Ukraine, the EU’s gas supply would henceforth pass through Germany. Eastern European countries had been asking the EU in vain to put up barriers against the German natural gas distribution monopoly.

From now on, it will not pass through either Ukraine or Germany, and the prospect of insufficient electricity and natural gas supplies is looking increasingly threatening for the coming winter.

Trapped in the a stupid energy policy, the hasty «decarbonization» of electricity generation, In Greece, they rushed to phase out coal in August 2021, even though Germany had set a target of 2038 and Poland of 2049! Now, all EU countries, including Greece, are scrambling to secure liquefied natural gas before the cold weather sets in and people start turning on their home heating systems. 

Excessive demand for natural gas, combined with a shortage of supply, has sent its price skyrocketing. The «doomed» They managed to raise not only the issue of supply security, but also the issue of the price of natural gas, electricity, and even coal, since everyone who can no longer find natural gas is turning to coal. All the fairy tales about «evil» CO2 suddenly stopped «playing» in the Mass Deception Media, and the Polish prime minister stated on September 9, 2022, in Der Spiegel that German energy policy has fallen into ruins, having caused tremendous damage to Europe.

On September 5, 2022, our Minister of Finance told us that by the end of the year, the government would spend over 10 billion euros on the so-called «subsidy» for electricity bills. Since money trees obviously don’t exist, This is money that we taxpayers pay, but the money does NOT come back to us, go mainly to the 5–6 electricity «providers» to keep them from going bankrupt. 

With their «expenses» guaranteed to be covered by public funds, these «providers» not only have no incentive to lower prices but, on the contrary, have every incentive to raise them! As a result of this policy, One can feel nothing but anger On August 30, 2022, the wholesale price of electricity on the Hellenic Energy Exchange reached as high as 936.33 €/MWh, while on August 31, 2022, the average daily price reached €697.41/MWh. For the simple reason that they have linked the price of electricity to the price of natural gas! We’re paying more and more for imported Russian natural gas to generate electricity, indirectly financing the war in Ukraine! In fact, we’re reading that in the coming days we’ll also be receiving liquefied natural gas from Russia!

The worst part is that This colossal squandering of taxpayers' money does nothing whatsoever to address the root causes which drove electricity generation to the brink. As citizens, we have every right to ask, «Where is our money going?» With that same money, the government could have bought back the entire Public Power Corporation (PPC), as well as other «providers,» and gained full control over prices. It didn’t do that, and now it says nonsense about energy «conservation» from consumers, even as it subsidizes the purchase of electric cars! And it doesn’t even offer the slightest incentive to install even more solar water heaters and solar heating systems, all of which are GREEK manufacturing. But it provides incentives to replace air conditioners, all of which are IMPORTS.

It also provides no incentive for to install as many solar panels as possible on rooftops. A 2019 study by the EU Research Center showed that rooftops alone can meet one-third of our annual electricity needs. But the new rooftop solar program, which was launched just in March 2022, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, is completely unprofitable for consumers and has been a resounding failure. At the Thessaloniki International Trade Fair, we heard new fairy tales Regarding «280,000 new rooftop solar panels»: Which grid will these solar panels be connected to, given that the low-voltage grid is the one established decades ago by 100% Public PPC and no new investments are being made?;

To put the figure of over 10 billion euros into perspective, it is exactly equivalent to the National Development Program (NDP). This is the comprehensive system for the planning, management, monitoring, and control of interventions funded by national resources under the Public Investment Program (PIP). The EPA’s programming periods last five years, and the first programming period began on July 1, 2021, with the individual programs being phased in by December 31, 2021. This driving force of the Greek economy, therefore, has a total budget of, for the entire five-year period and not just for one year—exactly 10 billion euros!

For a decade, since the 2010 bankruptcy, governments have never managed to come up with—not 10 billion, but even just a little money 

• to prevent young people from emigrating in search of a better future away from Greece. 
• to support young families and address the low birth rate that has plagued Greece for years. 
• to promote health and to avoid In 2022, there was an increase of 15,42% in deaths compared to the average for the six-year period from 2016 to 2021. And no one is interested in telling us why we have a higher mortality rate!
• to support education. We were speechless on Saturday, September 10, 2022, when we heard the Deputy Minister of Education say that Gavdos should be deserted and its children should go to school in Sfakia so they can «socialize»! As if Gavdos-Sfakia were something like Kifissia-Marousi! Using the same, completely absurd «logic,» the entire countryside has been depopulated in recent years!
• to support newly appointed teachers who are sleeping in tents and on beaches in the Cyclades because their salary isn't enough to pay rent.

This is the true cost of the so-called «electricity subsidies»: the dismantling of society for the sake of 5 or 6 electricity «providers». And because the exorbitantly high cost of electricity is due exclusively to the political construct of the so-called «climate crisis,», We now know exactly who chose this path and is causing the breakdown of the country’s social fabric.

Wishes alone don’t dye eggs, and unfortunately, we’re not hearing any proposals from our political system to break the deadlock into which it has led us their decision to burn more and more IMPORTED natural gas. Many Greek energy scientists have been saying this for years: when will politicians finally listen to science?;

By Christos I. Kolovos, Ph.D. in Mining Engineering – Metallurgical Engineering, National Technical University of Athens (NTUA); former Director of the Mining Studies & Projects Division, Public Power Corporation (PPC) S.A./Lignite Center of Western Macedonia