ATHENS (Reuters) -Greece plans to implement rotating power outages as a last resort if Russian gas supplies are disrupted, according to a contingency plan that was announced on Thursday.
These emergency measures will be activated only if other actions, including ramping up coal-fired power capacity, asking consumers to reduce power consumption at peak hours and stopping power exports, prove insufficient, its energy regulator said.
Greece, which relies on Russian pipeline gas for 40% of its gas needs, has not seen any disruption of its gas supplies so far. It has replaced a big chunk of the Russian fuel with liquefied gas (LNG) imported from the United States and other countries.
Under European Union guidelines, Greece would need to store enough gas in other states to cover 15% – 900 million cubic metres – of its annual use, as it has no gas storage facilities.
Under its contingency plans, Athens may also request emergency assistance from neighbouring countries with sufficient energy supplies.
Athens has been in talks with Italy on whether it can store gas there ahead of the winter and in talks with the European Commission on whether it can store a smaller quantity in Italy, according to a government source.
(Reporting by Angeliki Koutantou; Additional reporting by Renee Maltezou; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
