“ADMIE’s capital increase marks the start of a new investment cycle that will give a significant boost to the country’s energy transition,” said the company’s chairman and CEO, Manos Manousakis, in remarks to the Athens-Macedonian News Agency (ANA-MPA) regarding the company’s upcoming share capital increase.
The book of offers for Greek and foreign investors is expected to open on Tuesday, June 16, and will remain open for three days, with the goal of raising €1 billion.
The two main shareholders, the Greek State, which controls 51% of ADMIE, and China’s State Grid, with a 24% stake, have already exercised their preemptive rights, ensuring that the State will retain control of the Operator even after the process is completed.
“A strong vote of confidence”
As Mr. Manousakis points out, the capital injection will allow for the acceleration of projects that are at the top of ADMIE’s investment priorities for the coming years.
“The capital injection will enable the rapid progress of the projects we have prioritized for the coming period, such as the electrical interconnections of the Dodecanese, the North Aegean islands, and the second direct current interconnection with Italy,” he states.
He emphasizes that the Greek government’s support through the utilization of funds from the Recovery and Resilience Facility constitutes “a strong vote of confidence from Greece and Europe in ADMIE’s investment program.”
At the same time, he notes that discussions with institutional investors confirm the strong interest of domestic and international portfolios in investing in the Operator, which is planning projects totaling €6 billion through 2029.
The projects reshaping the energy landscape
Recently, ADMIE completed the second Greece–Bulgaria power interconnection, as well as the two major undersea interconnections linking Crete to the mainland (Chania–Peloponnese and Heraklion–Attica).
At the same time, the fourth and final phase of the Cyclades interconnection is expected to be completed by 2026.
At the heart of the new investment cycle are three projects of strategic importance: the interconnection of the Dodecanese, the interconnection of the North Aegean islands, and the second Greece–Italy electricity interconnection (GRITA 2).
Dodecanese: A project worth over €2 billion
The starting point of the Dodecanese electricity interconnection is Corinth, from where the connection to Kos will be made via a 430-km high-voltage direct current (HVDC) cable system (420 km underwater and 10 km on land).
The project also includes the interconnection of Kos with Rhodes via three high-voltage alternating current (HVAC), approximately 100 kilometers long, and Rhodes with Karpathos via an underwater cable of the same technology, 88 kilometers long.
The tender for the converter stations and the new substation in Kos is already underway with a budget of €809.1 million, while the tender for the submarine cable system, with a budget of €1.35 billion, covers a total cable length of 1,290 kilometers and a transmission capacity of 1,000 MW.
Electrical interconnection of the northern Aegean islands
The electrical interconnection of the northern Aegean includes the islands of Lemnos, Lesbos, Chios, Samos, and Skyros, which will be integrated into the interconnected system via high-voltage alternating current (HVAC) cables.
Regarding the cable works component, the electronic auction and the ranking of bids for each section of the international tender for the conclusion of a framework agreement for the construction of 150 kV high-voltage cables using alternating current (HVAC) technology. The cables will be used in the interconnections of the islands of the northern Aegean and the Dodecanese, as well as in smaller-scale interconnection projects on the Ionian and Argosaronic islands.
Due to historically high demand for submarine cables for interconnection projects at the international level, ADMIE implemented this specific tendering practice for the first time with the aim of saving time (due to the limited availability of production slots at contractors’ factories) and resources.
The contract, with a total maximum budget of €2.070 billion, was awarded based on the most economically advantageous bid. Fulgor S.A. was selected as the contractor for the first section of the contract, which includes the Thrace-Limnos, Kos-Rhodes, Lesbos-Limnos, and Lesbos-Chios interconnections.
Similarly, the second section of the contract, covering the Rhodes-Karpathos, Aliveri (GIS)-Skyros, Samos-Kos, Skyros-Lesbos, Chios-Samos, Aegina-Megara, and Kefalonia-Kyllini, was awarded to Prysmian Powerlink Srl.
The Operator has also announced a tender for the conclusion of a framework agreement for the design, supply of equipment, and installation of new high-voltage substations, as well as the expansion of existing infrastructure on islands to be interconnected and their connection points with the mainland power system, ADMIE announced.
The tender calls for the development of nine new GIS-based enclosed-type substations in Thrace, Lemnos, Lesbos (western Lesbos and Mytilene), Chios, Samos, Karpathos, Skyros, and Tinos, as well as the expansion of two substations on Rhodes, in Soroni and at the island’s thermal power plant. It should be noted that for the substations in Western Lesbos and Soroni, the installation of static power compensation systems (STATCOM). The total budget for the tender amounts to 291 million euros, and the duration of the framework agreement is set at 4 years.
SOURCE: APE-MPE