EVIKEN, the Association of Industrial Energy Consumers, has testified against PPC, the Public Power Corporation, at an Athens Administrative Court hearing prompted by the electricity utility over fines imposed on it by RAE, the Regulatory Authority for Energy.

RAE had fined PPC in 2013 for its refusal to negotiate individual invoicing with medium-voltage consumers, as required by regulations.

In its court intervention, EVIKEN noted that industrial consumers have a clear interest in the validation of RAE’s regulatory authority for the safeguarding of the proper functioning of the market and interests of medium voltage consumers.

In addition, industrial consumers believe that RAE’s decisions concerning PPC’s regulatory obligations as a supplier to medium-voltage industrial consumers need to be validated, considering the power utility’s dominant position in the supply market.

Also, industrial consumers intervened in the legal case to confirm that PPC’s actions, such as those concerning medium-voltage consumers, violate the electricity utility’s regulatory obligations, as well as to justify the imposition of sanctions, such as the fines imposed by RAE.

The RAE decision officially certifies PPC’s “quasi-monopolistic position” in the supply market towards medium and high-voltage consumers as they do not have other supply alternatives that may offer more favorable terms, the industrial consumers noted in their case.

PPC contends that it offers five different invoicing sub-categories for industrial consumers.