Natural gas network to expand in three regions of Greece

Greece’s natural gas distribution network for home and commercial uses will be extended to another 18 cities in three regions of the country, following a tendering process that will begin shortly, the leading officers of the Public Corporation of Natural Gas Distribution Networks (DEDA) on Wedneday.
The 172-million-euro project for extending the network to the 18 cities in Central Greece, Central Macedonia and East Macedonia/Thrace will be funded by a combination of EU’s NSRF funds, loans of the European Investment Bank and DEDA capital, Networks president Stavros Raptopoulos and VP and CEO Stefania Mosse said.
The cities to get access to natural gas include Karpenissi, Amfissa, Thebes, Levadia, Lamia and Chalkida, in Central Greece; Veria, Alexandria Imathias, Giannitsa, Katerini, Serres and Kilkis, in Central Macedonia; and Orestiada, Kavala, Komotini, Drama, Xanthi and Alexandroupoli, in East Macedonia/Thrace.
The tendering process for materials and construction will have been issued for all three regions by summer, the DEDA officers said.
By 2023, they said, all three areas will have acquired a network spanning 1,130 km, and made 30,800 new connections.
A next batch to follow of four more regions will include the construction of an 850-km network and include 15,000 connections, at a budgeted cost of 109 million euros.
In certain areas which do not lie near a tranfer pipeline, the natural gas will be transported by trucks either in LNG form (Patra, Agrinio, Pyrgos) or in CNG form (Karpenissi, Amfissa, Veria, Giannitsa and Orestiada).
As DEDA – which is responsible for natural gas networks beyond Attica, Thessaloniki and Thessaly -clarified, it is solely responsible for construction and management of the networks, not for pricing and billing, which will be carried out by other companies.