Greece’s Independent Power Transmission Operator (ADMIE or IPTO) on Tuesday cited an official interest by the US-based International Development Finance Corp. (DFC) to participate in the Great Sea Interconnector project, a proposed HVDC interconnector that would link the power grids of Israel, Cyprus and Greece via what’s billed as the longest submarine power cable in the world.
The cable project is characterized as a 2,000MW interconnector originally conceived in 2017 to bolster energy security in the wider region and bring surplus electricity production from the Mideast to mainland Greece, and by extension the EU.
According to IPTO, the US development finance institution, a federal agency, submitted a letter of intent following a financial and technical evaluation of the project. IPTO said DFC would then decide to participate in the project’s share capital, finance a portion of the latter or both.
“We welcome DFC’s formal interest in participating in the Great Sea Interconnector. It’s a vote of confidence in the effort to implement the project, which will have multiple benefits for Cypriot and Greek consumers. For this development, I would like to warmly thank ministry of the environment and energy’s leadership, and the US embassy, especially, the ambassador, George Tsunis,” IPTO president and CEO Manos Manousakis said.
The proposed power connection between Greece, Cyprus and Israel is already included in a Projects of Common Interest (PCIs) list, with 657 million euros budgeted for the project by the EU Commission.
