PPC supplier surcharge arrears may be offset by PV outlays

An accumulating electricity supplier surcharge amount owed by main power utility PPC could be offset by amounts paid by the utility to RES producers maintaining roof-mounted PV systems. PPC is obligated to provide RES producers payments in advance before receiving delayed payments from LAGIE, the Electricity Market Operator, which cover these respective amounts, according to sources.

PPC has refused to pay its share of an electricity supplier surcharge to LAGIE since the beginning of this year, depriving, as a result, the operator’s RES special account of 75 million euros.

In response, independent electricity suppliers, whose supplier surcharge obligations are lower as a result of their smaller retail electricty market shares, are contributing 50 percent of their respective shares, based on a court ruling, until a solution to PPC’s noncompliance is found.

This 50-percent contribution by independent electricity suppliers sufficed when the supplier surcharge, which is revised weekly, had shot up to extreme levels early in the year, but is insufficient now that the surcharge level has returned to reasonable levels. RAE, the Regulatory Authority for Energy, needed to intervene and set an upper limit.

The supplier surcharge has since returned to levels averaging between 6 and 7 euros per MWh, as had been anticipated in a related study conducted by the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

LAGIE has maintained a tolerant stance against PPC, taking into account the utility’s serious cash flow problems, caused by an alarming level of unpaid receivables, enerypress sources have informed.