Ellaktor, Terna up bids for PPC Renewables geothermal tender

Two investment schemes, Helector SA, a member of the Ellaktor group, as well as a team comprised of Terna Energy and sister company Terna Aioliki Xerovouniou SA, have improved their binding second-round bids in an international tender staged by PPC Renewables for a strategic partner in the installation of power stations to utilize four geothermal fields.

PPC Renewables, which holds the operating rights to these fields, requested increased bids from the tender’s participants. A supervisory committee is expected, within the next few days, to deliver its results to the PPC Renewables board, which will then decide.

PPC Renewables, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the main power utility PPC, is aiming for swift progress in its quest for a strategic partner and the establishment of a finalized partnership agreement as soon as possible.

PPC Renewables is aiming to utilize geothermal fields at Methana – a peninsula in northeast Peloponnese – the islands Lesvos and Nisyros, as well as the island complex of Milos, Kimolos and Polyaegos, the Aegean Sea’s largest uninhabited island.

PPC Renewables plans to establish a joint venture with its prospective strategic partner to develop geothermal power stations of at least 8 MW on Lesvos and 5 MW at each of the other locations.

PPC Renewables intends to soon launch exploratory drilling procedures at its own expense. These drilling endeavors are planned to run concurrently with the ongoing selection process for a strategic partner.

Officials at PPC Renewables believe the reluctance, if not outright opposition, of residents on some of the islands to the geothermal plan will ease once islanders are fully informed of technological advancements in the sector, preventing environmental impact. Locals reacted back in the 1980s against an initiative for the development of a geothermal field on Milos.