Citing unfavorable conditions and pending issues, the country’s high-voltage industrial consumers are refusing to sign new electricity supply agreements with the main power utility PPC following an invitation extended by the latter to all industries in late July.

High-voltage consumers argue the power utility has refrained from staging tariff negotiations of any substance with industries.

Also, a variety of issues remain unresolved, such as settlement of time frames for peak-hour electricity, the duration of new contracts, and the details of a formula determining cost-offsetting amounts for major-scale industrial firms, sector officials have pointed out.

Industrialists are pushing for high-voltage electricity supply contracts along the lines of favorable arrangements offered by PPC, until 2020, to ATEbank – formerly known as the Agricultural Bank of Greece and now taken over by the Piraeus Bank – and Larco, the troubled state-controlled general mining and nickel producer.

PPC agreed to offer Larco an 11 percent discount for punctual payment of its electricity bills as well as a 21 percent volume-related discount despite the enterprise’s major struggle to keep up with electricity bills. Larco is believed to owe PPC around 250 million euros.

High-voltage industries also noted PPC is offering equal, if not better, terms to consumers in the mid-voltage category, where competition exists.