Why Greece's Old Power Lines Have Become Firestarters
A disproportionate share of Greece's most destructive wildfires this year was ignited not by arson or lightning, but by the country's own electricity grid. Preliminary data from the Hellenic Fire Service's Investigation Directorate shows that fires linked to the power network are responsible for roughly 75% of the total area burned in 2025. While electrical infrastructure accounts for only a small fraction of total fire ignitions, those that do occur often strike under the worst possible conditions — high winds, peak electricity demand and in remote, fire-prone landscapes — allowing them to spread fast and grow into catastrophes.
Two deadly fires in late July, one in western Attica and another on the island of Crete, have both been preliminarily connected to the electricity network. Together they consumed more than 14,600 hectares (36,000 acres) and claimed four lives. Elias Tziritis, wildfire programme coordinator at WWF Greece, said that six out of ten large fires and 55% of the area burned in 2025 were caused by the grid, reinforcing a pattern where grid-sparked blazes, though statistically few, are overwhelmingly the ones that destroy the most.
The mechanisms are well understood: sagging or slack conductors, vegetation hitting cables, dust build-up on transmission equipment, and short circuits can all throw sparks. The risk is amplified when strong winds stress overhead lines and when heatwaves drive up electricity consumption, overloading ageing transformers and switches. Much of Greece's network was strung overhead through forests and increasingly depopulated rural areas in the 1960s, a cheap electrification strategy that the decade-long financial crisis that began in 2009 starved of maintenance and modernisation.
HEDNO's Denials, Rising Lawsuits and the €35 Billion Undergrounding Dilemma
HEDNO's Counter-Narrative and the Arrests
Hellenic Electricity Distribution Network Operator (HEDNO) strongly rejects the characterisation of its network as a leading fire cause. The company points out that only about 1% of all fires recorded in 2025 were attributed to the electrical network, compared with approximately 3% in the United States. HEDNO says its crews were deployed to major fire fronts to assist emergency services and restore power. In a statement, it accused critics of "lightly blaming HEDNO" to disguise local responsibilities and pursue short-term interests. Nevertheless, after the Crete fire, authorities arrested two HEDNO managers responsible for network operation and maintenance; they were later released. In Viotia, the area from which the western Attica fire spread, investigators suspect sparks came from equipment at a private wind farm, leading to the detention of the local mayor, a contractor and the company owner.
The PG&E Shadow: Financial Liability and Lawsuits
The legal and financial consequences for Greek network operators could mirror the existential crisis that hit California's Pacific Gas & Electric, which filed for bankruptcy after its equipment sparked catastrophic wildfires, exposing the company to billions of dollars in liabilities. In Greece, the number of court cases related to grid-linked fires jumped from 369 to 681 during 2024, according to retired fire service general Christos Kalogeropoulos. One of the few cases to reach a final ruling against HEDNO was a class action after a 2015 wildfire in Neapoli, Laconia, which destroyed homes and large tracts of forest and farmland. Evgenia Lazaraki, a lawyer representing victims, noted that energy companies hold both the technical knowledge and the evidence, putting plaintiffs at a severe disadvantage — a dynamic that could throttle accountability unless courts or regulators force disclosure.
Undergrounding: A €35 Billion Logistical Puzzle
Energy Minister Stavros Papastavrou says the government will tighten rules for private energy projects, but experts warn that a narrow focus on private operators may distract from the deeper problem of the ageing public grid. Moving cables underground is slow and expensive. Alexandra Sdoukou, a spokesperson for the ruling New Democracy party, said placing the entire 120,000-kilometre medium-voltage network underground would cost about €35 billion, forcing the government to prioritise the highest-risk areas first. Athens is currently using EU Recovery and Resilience Facility funds to finance undergrounding, and the share of the distribution network below ground has risen from 9% in 2021 to around 14%. Yet researchers like Paleologos Paleologou, an associate professor of forest protection at the Agricultural University of Athens, warn that progress will remain blind without detailed data on the locations of pylons and transmission lines to model where the network is most vulnerable.
What This Crisis Means for Utilities, Governments and Vulnerable Regions
- For utilities and grid operators across Southern Europe: The Greek data is a red flag. With wildfires intensifying across the Mediterranean, a hard-nosed audit of overhead-line exposure, vegetation management and spark-prevention technology is now a fiduciary duty. The PG&E bankruptcy shows that the cost of inaction can wipe out equity.
- For HEDNO and its private counterparts: The surge in lawsuits — 681 cases in 2024 — and the recent arrests signal that legal and reputational risk is crystallising. Management should not wait for forced disclosure to map the highest-risk corridors; proactively sharing data with fire investigators and forestry researchers could limit legal exposure and shape smarter investment.
- For the Greek government and EU funders: The €35 billion price tag for full undergrounding places a premium on precise risk mapping. Using academic and fire service data to sequence investment — starting with the grid segments most likely to ignite catastrophic fires — can deliver the largest risk reduction per euro, especially as EU recovery funds are finite.
- For communities and local authorities in fire-prone regions: The pattern of grid-sparked fires starting during high winds means real-time alert systems tied to weather forecasts and grid load data could buy critical evacuation minutes. Municipalities should push for formal protocols that cut power preventively in extreme conditions, as is already practiced in parts of California and Australia.
Risk & Opportunity Assessment
| Commercial Risk | High | Liabilities from grid-sparked wildfires can reach billions of euros, as the PG&E bankruptcy demonstrated. HEDNO faces 681 active court cases in 2024 and the possibility of large compensation awards, while private operators like the Viotia wind farm are also being drawn into criminal and civil proceedings. |
| Competitive Risk | Medium | The government's plan to tighten rules for private energy projects could shift the risk profile of independent power producers, potentially deterring investment in renewable generation if liability frameworks are unclear. However, the dominant structural challenge remains the public grid, limiting direct competitive displacement. |
| Regulatory Risk | High | Athens has already arrested HEDNO managers and is promising stricter oversight of private operators. A more interventionist stance, including potential mandatory undergrounding targets or preventive power shut-off regulations, would fundamentally alter the operating environment for both public and private network operators. |
| Reputation Risk | Critical | Four deaths and the destruction of tens of thousands of hectares have put HEDNO and, by extension, the government, at the centre of public anger. Opposition parties and civil society groups accuse the government of dragging its feet and even pulling some fire-prevention projects from EU-funded recovery plans. Trust in the utility and in the state's ability to manage climate adaptation is severely eroded. |
| Technology Disruption | Low | The core technology of overhead power lines is not being rapidly displaced by a novel alternative; underground cabling is a well-established capital-intensive upgrade. The main disruption is financial and regulatory, not technological, though improved spark-detection sensors and weather-responsive grid controls could become standard if liabilities force adoption. |
| Commercial Opportunity | High | The push to underground 120,000 km of network, even if only in high-risk zones, creates a multi-billion-euro market for civil engineering, cabling, and monitoring companies. EU recovery funds and emergency government spending could accelerate contracts for firms specialising in grid resilience and fire-prevention technologies. |
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