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Η παρούσα διπλωματική εργασία παρουσίαζει το New Green Deal, καθώς κι την ενεργειακή μετάβαση των λιμανιών σε μία νέα εποχή με απώτερο σκοπό τον εκσυγχρονισμό των λιμένων αλλά και την ενεργειακή απεξάρτηση τους από παραδοσιακές πηγές καυσίμων, οι οποίες ρυπαίνουν το περιβάλλον και προκαλούν οικολογικές καταστροφές σε μακροπρόθεσμο ορίζοντα. Το New Green Deal βάζει στόχο την μείωση των ρύπων, την αλλαγή καυσίμων σε όλες των ειδών τις μεταφορές. (Λιμενικές, Αέρος και Στεριάς), αφού η Ευρωπαϊκή Ένωση μέσω των στρατηγικών της για την βιοποικιλότητα και το περιβάλλον, αναγκάζει όλα τα μέρη του συστήματος να εναρμονιστούν και να συνεργαστούν. Χαρακτηριστικά παραδείγματα είναι ο λιμένας του Ρότερνταμ, του Αμστερνταμ και της Αμβέρσας. Ως προς την μελέτη περίπτωσης του λιμανιού της Ραφήνας, η έρευνα έχει πραγματοποιηθεί μέσω ερωτηματολογίου που μας παραχώρησε το Εργαστήριο Ολοκληρωμένης Λιμενικής Διαχείρισης, στο οποίο προσμετρούνται όλοι οι παράγοντες για την αναβάθμιση αυτού σε σχέση με τις Λιμενικές υπηρεσίες του, τους εργαζόμενους του, αλλά και την περιβαλλοντική διαχείριση των θαλασσίων και ξηρών περιοχών του λιμένα. This master thesis presents the New Green Deal, as well as the energy transition of the ports to a new era with the ultimate goal of modernizing the ports and their energy independence from traditional fuel sources, which pollute the environment and cause ecological disasters in the long term horizon. The New Green Deal aims to reduce pollution, change fuels in all types of transport. (Ports, Air and Land), since the European Union, through its strategies for biodiversity and the environment, forces all parts of the system to harmonize and cooperate. Typical examples are the port of Rotterdam, Amsterdam, and Antwerp. Regarding the case study of the port of Rafina, the research has been carried out through a questionnaire provided to us by the Laboratory of Integrated Port Management, in which all the factors for upgrading it in relation to its port services, its employees, but also the environmental management of the sea and dry areas of the port.

Over the years, islands have become overly dependent and vulnerable to traditional energy lines. Great importance has to be laid down to their energy resources to help them achieve sustainability and energy independence, constituting them self-sufficient. Thus, islands become part of the European energy transition and the zero-emissions EU initiative until 2050. As a consequence of the environmentally friendly directives of the EU, the traditional centralized energy production facilities are gradually being replaced with distributed, heterogeneous, multidirectional, and smart energy systems. Often serve as ‘‘test subjects’’ for new technologies and their performance. As a key figure, the European Commission, encourages research and innovation in the energy field. States and industrial actors have identified islands as key energy transition sites because their distinctive isolation characterizes them compared to main-lands. Therefore, energy routes are to be made to facilitate their needs. Also, these islands can easily, with the available technology, abstain from the traditional production of energy from fossil fuel to emission-free renewable energy sources that could include hybrid models of energy production. The energy transitions should actively work to anchor initiatives solving additionally local concerns and localized issues. Many Islands of the EU, despite having access to renewable sources of energy, still depend on expensive fossil fuel imports for their energy supply. The European Commission has launched the ‘‘Clean Energy for EU Islands Initiative’’ as part of the ‘‘Clean Energy for all Europeans’’ package. One of the primary instruments of this initiative is the European Islands Facility (NESOI), which aims to create through innovation and subsidies clean energy projects across the EU islands. Plentiful projects are already underway in the EU and Greece, including the Astypalea project of Volkswagen, the Tilos project, the ESBØ project in Norway and Sweden, and older projects such as the Samsø project in the Netherlands and the El Hierro in Spain, which are some of the many innovative projects that led the way in R&D for establishing independent islands. Nevertheless, are these projects sustainable and energy-wise secure? Do they hold geopolitical importance for Greece? What legal aspects could an energy contract of this magnitude entail? There are many questions around the subject of energy islands that are to be answered in a theoretical way to depict the importance of governance, the legal dimension of energy security, while assessing the factor of energy sustainability and evaluating the legal environment of these pioneering projects via the use of various indexes. Most importantly, are the EU projects equivalent to other initiatives worldwide, such as Hawaii and Maldives, or does the Union need to reconsider and recalibrate them, especially due to the Covid-19 pandemic and its’ economic stagnation? Where should the weight be shifted, and how energy exploitation contracts can be sustainable and durable under almost any circumstances?

With the global population set to continue growing, the demand for energy will steadily increase. Fossil fuel resources are in decline, and their use is associated with environmental destruction. The purpose of this thesis is to highlight the need for massive RES deployment in order to facilitate the energy transition into a coal free future and achieve complete decarbonisation until 2050. But we all know that RES is a capital intensive business. Since not all RES technologies are mature enough, this fact reflects on investments since investors tend to be more reluctant towards new forms of RES technologies. This has made financing the RES arguably one of the biggest problems of the 21st century. During the last years, RES projects were and still are supported throughout EU by support schemes providing security to RES producers, either that comes by FIP regimes or tenders, securing a fixed price on the wholesale market price in order to make RES more competitive. Since prices for RES infrastructure, establishment and equipment have significantly been reduced, the ultimate goal is that support schemes will eventually cease to exist. But of course we are not there yet. So in order to close the gap, the granting of state aid is usually inevitable. And as I say, where there is funding (plus in this case state intervention) there is also the need for state aid control. State aid rules are designed to prevent or limit the capacity of Member States to distort the competitive process and intra-community trade in the EU by granting an undertaking with some economic advantage. The thesis analyzes the role of competition and state aid in the EU energy market, examines all the conditions that make an aid fall within the scope of Article 107 par.1 of TFEU (notion of state aid) and presents all exceptional frameworks under which a state aid shall be deemed compatible with the EU market. Throughout this thesis it is established that there is a need for state aid to contribute even more in the energy transition, which raises the question of how the environmental considerations can be integrated into state aid policy. Last but not least, this thesis also discusses the latest tool of the EU towards tackling energy and climate crisis, which is the EU Green Deal, and its correlation with the state aid regime. It also discusses how the current guidelines (EEAG) allow to be broadened in order to promote coherency with the EU Green Deal objectives. As long as state aid is granted on an absolutely necessary basis with the goal of phasing out subsidies once all negative externalities have been internalized, then the distortion of competition would be kept to a minimum and the market failure linked to negative externalities rectified.

Η αυξανόμενη διείσδυση των ανανεώσιμων πηγών ενέργειας στο ενεργειακό μίγμα και η διαχείριση της συνολικής ζήτησης ενέργειας διαδραματίζουν καθοριστικό ρόλο για την ενεργειακή μετάβαση που αναδιαμορφώνει ουσιαστικά το ηλεκτρικό σύστημα. Μια σημαντική πρόκληση στην πορεία μας τέτοιας μετάβασης είναι η ενσωμάτωση και απορρόφηση αυξημένων ποσοτήτων ενέργειας προερχόμενη από στοχαστικές, ανανεώσιμες πηγές, χωρίς να τίθεται σε κίνδυνο η ασφάλεια και η αξιοπιστία του ηλεκτρικού συστήματος. Για το σκοπό αυτό, η εισαγωγή τεχνολογιών και πρακτικών διαχείρισης ζήτησης αποτελεί βασική λύση. Για να εκτιμήσουμε τον αντίκτυπο της εφαρμογής τέτοιων τεχνολογιών, είναι απαραίτητο να κατανοήσουμε πλήρως τις πολλαπλές πτυχές τους σε ενεργειακό επίπεδο και οποιωνδήποτε άλλων απαιτήσεων χρήσης ενέργειας στον οικιακό τομέα. Αυτή η ολιστική προσέγγιση είναι απαραίτητη για να συλλάβουμε πλήρως τις επιπτώσεις της σύμπτωσης των ενεργειακών απαιτήσεων σε διάφορες χρήσεις εντός μιας οικίας, αλλά και στο σύνολό τους. Ως αποτέλεσμα, η μοντελοποίηση της ζήτησης ενέργειας και η κατανόηση των προφίλ κατανάλωσης στον οικιακό τομέα είναι ζωτικής σημασίας για την ποσοτικοποίηση των πλεονεκτημάτων των τεχνολογιών και πρακτικών διαχείρισης ζήτησης, ειδικά με γνώμονα τους εθνικούς στόχους, στο πλαίσιο των ευρωπαϊκών προσπαθειών για επίτευξη κλιματικής ουδετερότητας έως το 2050. Υπό αυτό το πρίσμα, σκοπός της παρούσας διπλωματικής εργασίας είναι να μοντελοποιήσει την ενεργειακή ζήτηση στον οικιακό τομέα της Ελλάδας. Για να γίνει αυτό, χρησιμοποιείται το υπολογιστικό εργαλείο υψηλής ευκρίνειας «DREEM» (Dynamic high-Resolution dEmand-sidE Management), που παραμετροποιείται σύμφωνα με τα διαθέσιμα ερευνητικά και δημογραφικά δεδομένα για τον οικιακό τομέα της Ελλάδας. Τα αποτελέσματα δείχνουν την ικανότητα του μοντέλου να απεικονίζει με ακρίβεια τα προφίλ ζήτησης για ελληνικές κατοικίες, επισημαίνοντας τις κορυφές φορτίου, για τις τέσσερις διαφορετικές κλιματικές ζώνες στην Ελλάδα, λαμβάνοντας υπόψη τις διαφορετικές καιρικές συνθήκες και/ή τα διαφορετικά προφίλ συμπεριφοράς και πληρότητας των κατοίκων. Συνολικά, η παρούσα διατριβή επιδιώκει να αποδώσει μια πρώτη εικόνα της μοντελοποίησης της ενεργειακής ζήτησης που είναι απαραίτητη σε μια σειρά προσπαθειών για τον ποσοτικό προσδιορισμό του αντίκτυπου εφαρμογής διαφορετικών μέτρων ενεργειακής απόδοσης με σκοπό την επίτευξη των αντίστοιχων εθνικών στόχων έως το 2030, παρέχοντας παράλληλα συγκεκριμένες προτάσεις και χρήσιμες πληροφορίες σε ενδιαφερόμενα μέρη από το χώρο σχεδιασμού και χάραξης πολιτικών. Increasing shares of renewable energy sources and managing total demand are considered pivotal for energy transitions that fundamentally re-envisage the electricity system. A challenge of such transitions is integrating and absorbing increased shares of non-dispatchable renewable energy sources, without jeopardizing the security and the reliability of the electricity system. To this end, key solutions include the introduction of demand-side management technologies and practices. To appreciate the impact of adoption of such technologies it is necessary to fully understand the multi-energy aspects of such technologies, and indeed of any other domestic energy service demands. Such holistic treatment is necessary to fully capture the effects of coincidence in various energy service demands within and across dwellings. As a result, modeling of energy demand and understanding consumption patterns in the residential sector are of crucial importance to quantify the benefits of demand-side management technologies and practices, especially towards the achievement of national targets, in the context of European efforts to achieve climate neutrality by 2050. Building on the latter, the aim of this diploma thesis is to model the energy demand in the residential sector in Greece. To do so, the Dynamic high-Resolution dEmand-sidE Management (DREEM) model is used, parameterized according to existing survey and census data for the Greek residential sector. Results demonstrate the model’s capacity to accurately represent demand patterns for Greek dwellings, highlighting load peaks, for the four different climate zones in Greece, attributed to the different weather boundary conditions and/or different occupancy profiles. Overall, this thesis seeks to provide a first overview on the energy demand modeling necessary, in a series of efforts to quantify the impact of different energy efficiency measures towards the achievement of the respective national targets by 2030, also providing end-users from the field of policy and practice with specific recommendations and useful insights.

From the 1st of November 2020, the Greek Power Market is re-organized and operates according to the EU Target Model framework. The previous model of the mandatory pool is succeeded by the design and operation of four successive markets. These are the Derivatives Market (DM), which is a financial market and the three spot markets which are the Day-Ahead Market (DAM), the Intra-Day Market (IDM) and the Balancing Market (BM). The present Thesis is an attempt to efficiently organize and interpret the Spot Markets’ data and present a holistic overview of the market operation and the dynamics under the transitional period of the first three months under the EU Target Model implementation in the Greek Power Market. The analysis of the present study is performed based on real market data, as published from the Hellenic Transmission System Operator (HTSO), which is the ADMIE/IPTO, the Greek Nominated Energy Market Operator (NEMO), which is the Hellenic Energy Exchange (HEnEX) and the ENTSO-e Transparency Platform. The EU Target Model framework is implemented towards the harmonization of market rules and markets operation, across the European Member States, with the provision of the functioning of a single European-wide energy market, the so-called Internal Energy Market (IEM), where one of the main objectives of the IEM is the increase of sustainability, considering high penetration of Renewable Energy Sources (RES) in a European-wide scale.

The seaborne trade accounts for approximately 90 per cent of the global trade and economy, proving the power of this industry. The maritime transport of goods and raw materials remains the most cost-effective and energy-efficient means of transporting of large volume of cargo in comparison to road and rail. Nevertheless, the need for the immediate international actions on the climate crisis and global warming entails the reduction of emissions resulting from all sectors. The Kyoto Protocol indicated in its Article 2.2 the International Maritime Organization (IMO) as the global regulator for the reduction of emissions from international shipping. In line with that the International Maritime Organization (IMO) has developed a regulatory framework addressing to the control of the emissions of the air pollutants and to the improvement of ship energy efficiency, by limiting the emissions of the greenhouse gases. This thesis includes the main regulatory measures adopted for the reduction of the emissions of the Sulphur Oxides (SOx), Particulate Matter (PM), Nitrogen Oxides (NOx), and of the greenhouse gases (GHG), including Carbon Dioxide (CO2), Methane (CH4) and Nitrous Oxide (N2O), expressed in CO2e and concludes to the significance of the efforts of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) into minimizing the impact of the international shipping to the climate change.

The European Union (EU) is committed to reduce carbon emissions by 80-95% in 2050, when compared to 1990. To reach this ambitious objective, a shift in energy consumption to low carbon, locally produced energy, and Renewable Energy Sources (RES) is needed. The use of biomass to produce electricity, heat and fuels could significantly help towards this direction. More specifically, the generation of electricity supplemented by the production of thermal energy (Combined Heat and Power - CHP) is an efficient way το achieve EU’s targets. The produced thermal energy of the CHP plant could be used to supply District Heating Networks (DHN) of cities with cold climate. In the context of this master’s thesis, the application of biomass for CHP in Europe was studied. At the beginning was analyzed the policy framework for biomass and CHP in EU. Furthermore, an extensive analysis of the EU’s legal regime of biomass and cogeneration from it was executed. This analysis was further extended for the case of Greece. Moreover, the available technologies for biomass CHP were studied and the main advantages and disadvantages of biomass, as well as applications of CHP plants worldwide, were presented. Furthermore, a feasibility study concerning the installation of a CHP plant supplying with thermal energy the DHN of the city of Amynteon (Greece) was executed. Following a detailed energy study for the calculation of the installed electrical and thermal capacity of the specific plant, an extensive techno-economic analysis was performed, which proved that under certain conditions the relative investment could be profitable. Finally, an optimization study concerning the installation of a Thermal Energy Storage (TES) system in parallel with the CHP plant was also executed.

Energy Services can contribute to the European Union’s (EU) green transition, reducing the environmental footprint of the primary energy consumers, namely, the Industry, the Transport, the Buildings and the Public. Being intrinsically linked to energy efficiency, Energy Services can also substantially augment energy savings and efficiency while lessening both private and public sectors’ operating costs. Their maturity level differs significantly among the EU Member States. The thesis explores the EU Energy Service market’s current status and its growth perspectives. To that end, it pursues a genuine Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats (SWOT) analysis, leveraging an extensive literature review and a subsequent qualitative study, which results in eight challenges clusters, commonly shared by Strengths and Weaknesses, and seven clusters, jointly attributed to Opportunities and Threats. As it is revealed, the three chief Strengths’ clusters address Product, Technology and Sustainability & Climate Change aspects while those of Weaknesses are related to Economic, Product and Technology issues. As regards Opportunities, the three predominant clusters are associated with the Broader Market, Legislation and Social & Energy Transition while those of Threats with the Social & Energy Transition, Technical & Administration and Awareness & Communication challenges. Since the Opportunities prove to outperform all other SWOT pillars, recommendations are drawn for the paths that the EU should pursue, to unravel Energy Services’ great potential. The Energy Services’ positive impact, on both the EU’s energy transformation and its collaborations within and outside Europe, is also being reflected.