Sustainable power planning for the island of Crete

Crete, as one of the largest and most touristic islands of the Mediterranean, is facing abrupt population and economic growth tendencies that result in the incessant problem of inability to meet power demand increase. This paper evaluates the island's present electrical energy status, and examines the possibility of further penetration of sustainable energy. Various energy modelling software solutions are examined and evaluated, in order to form scenarios according to the governmental and EU directives for renewable energy sources (RES), as well as to the planned conventional power plant upgrades and LNG transition. RES are fully exploited in the plan's scenarios, always taking into account all technical and legislative limitations. Analysis shows that even the most modest and realistic RES implementation scenarios, combined with a partially successful demand restriction, could indeed contract the island's environmental footprint. RES penetration in Crete's electric seems to be able to surpass 30% by 2020, surpassing even the optimistic EU targets for 20% RES by 2020.