Geographical-based package sales of power utility PPC customers to rival suppliers are being considered by the state-controlled utility and energy ministry as a means of reducing the utility’s retail market share and ending its ongoing dominance. The country’s lenders have yet to become involved or take a stance.

Still rudimentary, the geographical-based customer sale plan is being looked at as an alternative that could replace NOME auctions, introduced about three years ago to offer lower-cost PPC wholesale electricity to competitors and now closed to being withdrawn.

This new proposal, which would result in the transfer, to rivals, of PPC customers with assorted profiles, from punctual, reliable, household, professional to agricultural, shares the principles of the previous chief executive Manolis Panagiotakis’ line of thinking for a mixed bag of customer transfers to competitors.

However, there is one big difference. If implemented, the new idea would reduce PPC’s market share around the country, not just in certain areas.

The government’s plan for a more aggressive 51 percent sale of distribution network operator DEDDIE/HEDNO, a PPC subsidiary, would help this new alternative overcome EU unbundling regulations. The sale of customer packages and PPC networks to different companies would abide by EU rules.