A new 800-MW PPC (Public Power Corporation) electricity production plant in the central Peloponnese region of Megalopoli is now set to operate following the completion of a gas pipeline expansion project to the area by DESFA, the Natural Gas Transmission System Operator. The pipeline is scheduled to begin operating on December 12 and, besides the PPC power plant, will also supply the wider region’s industrial and urban areas of Corinth, Argos, Nafplio, Tripoli, and Megalopoli.

Furthermore, the gas infrastructure project has been designed to make possible future expansions to other parts of the Peloponnese, specifically the provincial cities of Patras, Kalamata, Sparta, and Pyrgos and, ultimately, the entire Peloponnese and western Greece.

At present, the pipeline project, which runs from Agii Theodoroi, west of Athens, all the way to the PPC power plant in Megalopoli, is 167 kilometers long.

The PPC plant in Megalopoli is expected to begin operating in about one month, before the year is out.

A 35-percent portion of the pipeline project was financed by the 2007-2013 National Strategic Reference Framework, an EU funding program, as a Public Investment Program (PIP), while the remaining cost was covered by DESFA capital and an European Investment Bank (EIB) loan worth 55 million euros.