Power utility PPC, undergoing gradual transformation, expects to have amortized the cost of an initial voluntary exit plan for lignite-unit workers within six months, while amounts owed by the corporation to a series of third parties are being reduced, chief executive Giorgos Stassis informed analysts during a conference call yesterday, following a presentation of first-quarter results.
The cost of an initial voluntary exit package concerning approximately 1,000 PPC employees working at lignite units in northern Greece, is estimated between 30 and 35 million euros.
Stassis offered positive news on a number of fronts, including electricity-bill payments and cash flow, service digitization, securitization of unpaid receivables, and the ongoing implementation of a five-year business plan.
Online payments by customers now represent 30 percent of transactions, an 80 percent increase since the beginning of the lockdown measures, while 18,000 customers per day turn to the corporation’s call center for information, up from 5,000, maximum, prior to the lockdown, the company boss informed.
PPC has chosen the current period to launch its initial voluntary exit plan in order to determine, within the next two-and-a-half months, how many of its 4,000 or so employees working at lignite-fired power stations and mines will take up the offer, offering severance pay totaling 35,000 euros.
State-controlled PPC wants to organize personnel transfers as part of the country’s decabonization process. Vacant positions will be filled by workers to be transferred from PPC’s Amynteo facilities, planned to shut down in September, and Kardia, whose withdrawal is expected in 2021.
Electricity-bill payments by customers, down 18 percent in March and 14 percent in April, have rebounded to pre-lockdown levels since May, the chief executive informed.
Amounts owed to contractors, suppliers, operators and other third parties have fallen to 650 million euros from 900 million euros, Stassis said.
A small-scale securitization package for unpaid receivables up to 60 days will be offered in June or July, he added.