Officials at PPC, the main power utility, are focusing their efforts on utilizing the corporation’s potential and attracting major investments, its chief executive, Manolis Panagiotakis, told a recent Athens conference organized by IENE, the Institute of Energy for South-East Europe.

The utility’s head official also linked PPC’s bid for free carbon emission rights from the European Commission, an initiative based on Greece’s shrunken GDP amid the deep recession, with a drive to lower operating costs and attract investments of around one billion euros for revamps of older facilities and development of a second lignite-fired power station in Florina, northern Greece.

Italy’s Edison, which, in the past, has expressed interest to invest in Greek lignite-fired electricity production, is among the first companies to have re-emerged as a prospective investor in this field.

However, Edison now belongs to the French corporate group EdF, which pursues a specific energy policy that excludes investments in lignite-fired power production.

If this matter were to be resolved, PPC could establish a partnership that would not only help develop its domestic facilities but also offer support for expansion into regional foreign markets. PPC is likely to set the latter as a condition for any major foreign investor interested in developing the utility’s local facilities.

Panagiotakis made this quite clear during his speech at the IENE conference by noting that the utility is aiming to “further strengthen and develop PPC by expanding into neighboring markets and playing a leading role in the wider region.”