The main power utility PPC needs to intensify its unpaid receivables collection effort, the European Commission has stressed in its first post-bailout report.

PPC should focus on consumers owing two electricity bills or more, the Brussels report has pointed out, while also recognizing the progress made as a result of the power utility’s ongoing hunt.

PPC should keep pursuing customers who have transferred to other electricity suppliers, the report notes. It is estimated PPC is owed between 770 million and 780 million euros in unpaid receivables by this consumer category, older data has shown.

This group remains a main concern for the utility along with consumers who have somehow managed to change tax file numbers and disappear from PPC’s radar.

PPC’s unpaid receivables total 2.39 billion euros, of which 1.7 billion concerns the low-voltage consumer category of households and small businesses.

The unpaid receivables figure for the mid-voltage category, made up of small-scale manufacturers and businesses, totals 150 million euros. PPC’s high-voltage industrial consumers owe 378 million euros, with the troubled state-owned nickel producer Larco, alone, owing 285 million euros of this total. The Greek State owes PPC 201 million euros.