The country’s industrialists appear determined to apply further pressure on PPC, the Public Power Corporation, for lower electricity rates that reflect the corporation’s actual costs.

Following up on letters forwarded by SEV, the Hellenic Association of Industrialists, and EVIKEN, the Association of Industrial Energy Consumers, to PPC’s board, major industrialists are prepared to push their cause for lower rates further by taking direct, individual action, regardless of whether they have signed agreements with PPC or not.

Industrialists are basing their argument for lower electricity rates on the reduced operating costs enjoyed by PPC by factors such as the international market’s lower crude oil and natural gas prices, as well as regulatory moves, like the lower-cost CATs (Capacity Availability Tickets) imposed on PPC by the Eurpean Commission and the country’s creditor representatives, or troika.

The industrial sector fears that PPC’s current policy for industries, a discount-based system, may be deemed as illegal state by the European Commission, as it has already warned.

According to energypress sources, certain industrial enterprises have already begun pushing their cause for lower electricity rates – outright, not including discounts – while other companies are preparing to follow suit.

One major industrial enterprise, in a letter to PPC, has highlighted the sector’s overall fears about the PPC discount-based policy for industrial firms, which is being treated with reservation by the European Commission and troika. The troika has expressed the need for a revision of high-voltage electricity rates based on the impact of PPC’s lower operating costs, the industrial company noted in its letter. It concludes by calling for a meeting with PPC to seek ways to avert the danger of PPC’s discounts being considered as illegal state aid.