MACEDONIA – The region of Western Macedonia will remain an energy hub in the future, but of a different type, Environment & Energy Minister Kostas Skrekas said in the northern Greek city of Kozani on Monday.

He made the statements while presenting the region’s plans to productivity agencies in Kozani, in the context of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ visit to the Western Macedonian region the same day.

In the field of energy and the environment, Skrekas said, the Development Program for the Region of Western Macedonia is based on five key points :

– Development actions with a low carbon footprint

– Projects for natural gas, as a transitional fuel

– District heating projects

– Promoting circular economy actions

– Improving the urban landscape and protecting the natural environment

The Ministry of Environment & Energy “has drawn up 54 projects, budgeted at 400 million euros, for critical infrastructures in Western Macedonia,” noted Skrekas, adding that the operation of Ptolemaida 5 – the Public Power Company’s (PPC) new lignite plant – is creating 800 new jobs in the area.

Plans for Western Macedonia’s green transition include among others fire and flood protection projects, and the upgrading of electricity distribution networks, he added.