The most recent electricity market data provided by LAGIE, the Electricity Market Operator, may have shown a slight gain in the main power utility PPC’s volume-based market share but the independent suppliers are gaining ground in terms of new customers being attracted.

PPC’s market share increase witnessed over the past couple of months can be attributed to the increased consumption of the utility’s existing clients, officials explained.

The number of electricity supply connections made by independent suppliers rose from 136,000 to 160,500 between November and January, an 18 percent increase.

Supply connections in the low-voltage category remains extremely low for independent suppliers, totaling 158,000 or 2 percent of the market. Despite this low figure, the volume-based market share held by the independent suppliers is relatively bigger as these newcomers focused on larger-scale clients, especially the medium-voltage category, when they entered the market. More recently, however, independent suppliers are beginning to broaden their reach.

Among the independent suppliers, Elpedison continued to hold the largest number of connections, up 4.6 percent between November and January to 53,700. Second-placed Protergia made the biggest gain, increasing its number of supply connections by 27.8 percent to 47,700. Watt & Volt’s number of supply connections rose by 16.7 percent to 25,100, for third place. Fourth-placed Heron made the second-biggest gain, 25.5 percent, for a total of 17,700 supply connections.

These were followed by Green, up 14.2 percent between November and January to 4,800; NRG, up 13.7 percent to 3,300; Volterra, up to 3,000 from 2,700; OTE, up 11.1 percent to 4,100; ELTA, up 7.6 percent to 700; and Titan, the cement producer, unchanged at 25 connections.

Three new suppliers entered the market over the past two months, Diener, Economic Growth and Volton.