Risk of Greek blackouts increases as traders cut or halt power supplies Greece imported more than 10pc of its power demand in the third quarter of 2011, which includes the summer when heavy air-conditioning use boosts consumption. Already the drop in imports has affected the internal Greek power market dramatically. Prices there are usually 30-40 euros per megawatt-hour for baseload (24-hour) delivery but prices for Saturday settled as high as 96 euros in some hourly trading slots, with traders citing a combination of the import cuts and hot weather as the reason. Industrial consumers who are suffering as Greece endures its fifth year of recession usually buy power on long-term contracts and are not immediately affected by power market moves. However, if the prices remain high, they will eventually get passed on to companies that are often struggling for survival. Greece is connected to the Italian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Albanian and Turkish e lectricity markets and sometimes exports excess power to its neighbours. Not all imports have been affected. Some suppliers from Bulgaria, including its state-owned power company NEK, said they were not experiencing any delays in Greek payments and that the trade continued. However, if a sharp drop in imports were to coincide with a prolonged heatwave, power supplies might be cut during the peak season for tourism, one of the few major foreign exchange earners for the uncompetitive Greek economy. Altogether 16 million tourists visited Greece last year. The holiday sector accounts for 15 percent of economic output and one in five jobs in a country where unemployment has hit a record high of almost 22 percent.