P. Koukoulopoulos: “Energy Democracy and two proposals for immediate implementation for Western Macedonia”

An intervention on the energy provisions of the Bill of the Ministry of Environment & Energy was made by the Member of Parliament of Kozani of PASOK – Movement for Change, Paris Koukoulopoulos, during the meeting of the Standing Committee on Production & Trade.

By way of introduction, he recalled that “four years ago, with our late President Fofi Gennimata, we organized in Kozani the 1st public presentation of an integrated strategy for energy, under the title “Energy Democracy”. A proposal that we have enriched over time and developments have justified it many times. In titles since then we recommend:

1) Gradual withdrawal of lignite units, combined simultaneously with the rapid penetration of RES on the one hand and storage on the other.

2) Radical upgrade of the medium and low voltage networks, to serve the penetration of RES, as well as the high and ultra-high voltage avenues, in order to strengthen in the 1st phase the competition with cheaper imports and in the 2nd year the exports of energy from RES.

3) Radical energy upgrading of Public buildings in the country and the entire building stock (80,000 buildings) in Western Macedonia. This action with its multiplier would give all the GDP that Western Macedonia loses from lignite. With this logic, of the great multiplier, the energy upgrade was later included as a leading action in the Pissarides Report, the fate of which is unknown.

4) Development of RES with a rule: Placement of them by all Municipalities equally, under the condition that at least 50% of the RES developed in each Municipality serves the needs of the Municipalities themselves, farmers, socially vulnerable, manufacturing and powerful energy communities”.

Then contradicting the reports of the Minister of Environment & Energy, Mr. Th. Skylakakis, about the cost of lignite, he noted, among other things, that “the “Ptolemaida V” lignite unit, if it had not been delayed for four whole years (two due to SYRIZA and two under the responsibility of the ND), according to documented scientific calculations, it would have freed the state budget from at least 1.6 billion subsidies and would have been repaid only within the eighteen months of the crisis.”

Therefore, in opposition to the pioneer proposal of PASOK, P. Koukoulopoulos stated that “energy is donated to a few, while it appears that in less than five years 100% of RES will have passed into the hands of five powerful companies and PPC. This does not happen in any other European country, it is a huge mistake that Greece will unfortunately pay for.”

In addition, focusing specifically on Western Macedonia, he pointed out that there “currently 7 GW are fully licensed out of the 28 GW that have been licensed throughout Greece. In other words, 2.5% of the country’s population is asked to shoulder 25% of the RES development in Greece! And this happens without any concern for the citizens and the categories that we ensured in our proposal. What is happening with the development of 2 Gw by the PPC – RWE Consortium is an extreme challenge”.

Concluding his intervention, MP Kozani of PASOK proceeded with two targeted proposals for corrective interventions for Western Macedonia in view of the discussion of the Bill in the Plenary:

1) To give electric space to the Local Government, to the farmers and to the small and medium-sized investors who made sure to create energy communities and at the moment have 1.4 Gw production licenses, which remain unclaimed, as DEDDIE does not accept their applications, as they do not accepts the farmers and the Local Government.

2) To make a substantial intervention towards PPC, in order to achieve a model of cooperation in Western Macedonia, with which the local community (residents and Local Government) participate equally with PPC – RWE in the 2 Gw development project.

In more detail, you can see the video of the speech here: https://collab.parliament.gr/~ND3Ln