Electricity suppliers operating in the Greek retail market are increasingly dependent on NOME auctions as a result of narrowed profit margins that have prevented independent players from adopting more aggressive pricing policies for market share gains, a RAE (Regulatory Authority for Energy) official has underlined.

According to data presented by Vassilis Zouvias, head of the authority’s wholesale energy markets monitoring division, the net profit margin for retail electricity suppliers was restricted to 1.5 euros per MWh in 2017.

“Taking into account the operating costs of independent electricity suppliers, which reached 8 euros per MWh in 2017, the net profit margin for the year was 1.5 euros per MWh,” Zouvias pointed out at an industry event in Thessaloniki.

Worse still, conditions for independent players operating in the retail electricity market have become even more challenging in 2018 as a result of higher bidding levels generated at NOME auctions, including yesterday’s session.

NOME auctions were introduced in Greece over two years ago as a medium offering independent firms access to main power utility PPC’s lower-cost lignite and hydropower sources.