The forthcoming end of a long-lasting business association between Aluminium of Greece, a member of the Mytilineos group, and power utility PPC, announced at the former’s general shareholders’ meeting yesterday, marks the end of an era in the energy ties between the country’s biggest electricity consumer and the Greek market’s dominant supplier.

In 2023, Aluminium of Greece will no longer depend on PPC’s supply, a development concurrently marking the beginning of its goal to become the first eco-friendly aluminium producer.

The latest PPC-Aluminium of Greece agreement promises to pave the way for solutions in negotiations currently in progress between the power utility and other energy-intensive industrial producers.

Other than the fact that the duration of Aluminium of Greece’s new supply agreement with PPC will run until 2023, no other details have been disclosed. Its expiration in two years’ time will mark the end of a 60-year association between the two companies.

One thing already clear is that Aluminium of Greece, beyond 2023, will receive electricity from the Mytilineos group’s new natural gas-fired power plant being developed in the Agios Nikolaos industrial zone in Viotia’s Agios Nikolaos area, northwest of Athens, to be direct cable-linked to the Aluminium of Greece facility, as well as through RES production.

The combination of these two electricity sources will offer Aluminium of Greece greater energy-source flexibility, the group’s chairman and CEO Evangelos Mytilineos noted yesterday.

PPC’s administration, headed by chief executive Giorgos Stassis, displayed realism that will “help industry, as a whole, move ahead with the energy transition that is inevitably approaching,” Mytilineos acknowledged. “We can establish PPAs at good price levels, and we will play a significant role in this domain,” he added.