Emergency meetings at civil protection and energy ministries to prepare Greece for oncoming heatwave

Meetings to coordinate and prepare the civil protection response and the country's power grid ahead of the extended heatwave expected in Greece next week were held at the climate crisis and civil protection ministry and the environment and energy ministry on Sunday. The heatwave is forecast to begin on Monday and continue until at least next Friday.
Climate Crisis and Civil Protection Minister Yiannis Kefalogiannis called an interministerial coordinating meeting on Sunday morning, following a meeting of the ministry's Scientific Risk Assessment Committee. The meeting decided to place the fire department in a state of alert, in accordance with operational planning, and called for heightened readiness at the ministries of the interior, health, labour and tourism, along with the Hellenic Police and Hellenic Coast Guard and the civil defence mechanisms of municipal and regional authorities. It also called for armed forces patrols and for military digging machinery to be on standby, in case they are needed, and heightened readiness of the country's power grid operators and administrators, as well as the ambulance service.
Environment and Energy Minister Stavros Papastavrou also called an emergency coordinating meeting of the ministry's Working Team to ensure that the power system functions smoothly over the summer months, with the participation of the Independent Power Transmission Operator (IPTO), the Hellenic Electricity Distribution Network Operator S.A. (HEDNO) and the Regulatory Authority for Energy, Waste and Water (RAEWW), in order to ensure that electricity supply is not affected by the high temperatures.
This was attended by Deputy Environment and Energy Minister Nikos Tsafos, Secretary General for Energy and Mineral Raw Materials Despina Paliarouta, RAEWW Vice-President and Energy Sector Dimitrios Fourlaris, IPTO Business Development General Director Dimitris Michos and HEDNO General Director of Network Operation and Exploitation Nikos Skiathitis.
The meeting discussed the repercussions of high temperatures on underground and overground cables and the immediate action taken to avoid interruptions in power supply to households and businesses in the first 45 days of the summer, as well as the provisions for the coming period and the plan to ensure adequacy of supply. Papastavrou expressed his satisfaction with the level of readiness of the system and the managing bodies and asked for increased operational readiness in the next few days