(MENAFN- Trend News Agency)
BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 15. The ICGB, the
project company for the Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB)
received the Final Joint Decision for Certification as an
Independent Transmission Operator, the company told Trend .
The certification decision was presented to the two Executive
Officers Teodora Georgieva and Konstantinos Karayannakos by the
Chairmen of the National energy Regulators of Bulgaria and Greece -
EWRC and RAE – Stanislav Todorov and Athanasios Dagoumas.
With the successful completion of the certification procedure,
ICGB becomes the second independent gas transmission operator in
Bulgaria. This is a mandatory regulatory requirement that allows
the company to commercially operate the Greece-Bulgaria gas
interconnector upon fulfilment of certain conditions of the
decision, which is already in progress.
The Joint Decision of the Energy and Water Regulatory Commission
(EWRC) and the Regulatory Authority for Energy (RAE) was announced
after a successfully completed approval procedure with the European
Commission. The whole process was implemented within an optimized
time frame given the strategic importance of the interconnector. A
representative of the European Commission also participated in the
ceremony and welcomed the project. The Commission emphasized that
the new gas connector is an important contribution to the energy
security not only for Bulgaria, but also of all EU member states.
The EC supports the project from its very beginning, both providing
financial assistance and promoting its implementation.
'We are grateful to the EWRC, RAE and the EC for their
accelerated work on this process. The gas interconnector between
Bulgaria and Greece is a project of great importance for both
countries and for the entire region, given the complicated
international situation. It is extremely important for us to have
such institutional support in order to move forward with the
regulatory and administrative processes necessary to bring the
interconnector into commercial operation as quickly as possible,'
said ICGB Executive Officers Teodora Georgieva and Konstantinos
Karayannakos.
According to Georgieva, the one key element in the technical
implementation of the project remains the completion of the
integration and comprehensive testing of the SCADA system, that's
responsible for the overall control and management of the gas
pipeline. 'This will be the first fully automatic gas pipeline in
Bulgaria, and we cannot afford to compromise with the system that
will manage the entire IGB infrastructure. We count on the Greek
contractor company to complete these processes as soon as
possible,' said Georgieva.
The ICGB Executive Officer from the Greek side, Konstantinos
Karayannakos, emphasized that at every level the focus is towards
achieving the earliest possible start of the commercial operation
of the gas pipeline. . 'Given the situation in the region, we are
already actively talking for marketing the available capacity of
IGB, which would open many new opportunities for exports to the
Western Balkans, Moldova and Ukraine. We should take into
consideration that the IGB pipeline is expandable to 5 bcm/y. This
will be an increasingly important topic for ICGB in the future, but
at the moment we are focused on working with the institutions in
Bulgaria and Greece, on which the administrative procedures for the
commercial launch of the gas pipeline depend,' said Karayannakos.
He and Georgieva pointed out that active institutional support and
cooperation is needed to optimize the administrative deadlines in
order for the prompt launch of the IGB pipeline.
The IGB project is of key importance for increasing the security
of natural gas supplies and for ensuring the diversification of gas
sources for Bulgaria and the entire region of Southeast Europe. The
project will connect Bulgaria to the Southern Gas Corridor and has
excellent synergy with other major energy projects such as TAP,
TANAP, EastMed and the LNG terminal in Alexandroupolis.
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