PPC, Copelouzos Group venture preparing retail launch

PPC, the Public Power Corporation, and the Copelouzos Group, a fully integrated business development organization, servicing key industrial and technological sectors in Greece and abroad, are preparing to begin implementing their agreement for the creation of an energy services retail chain, according to energypress sources.

The venture’s first retail outlets are expected to be launched for business within 2015, spurred by the imminent introduction of legal framework concerning self-production and net metering, which enables electricity consumers who generate their own power from an eligible on-site facility to offset the electric energy provided by a utility during an applicable billing period. PPC’s collaboration with the Copelouzos Group for the chain was decided in the summer of 2013.

PPC Solar Solutions, the company formed for the retail chain, is currently conducting market research to determine the needs of consumers and how these will shape the chain’s retail outlets.

PPC holds a 49 percent stake in PPC Solar Solutions, while Damco Energy, a fully-controlled subsidiary firm of the Copelouzos Group, controls the majority 51 percent.

According to sources, PPC Solar Solutions will begin its operations in 2015 by launching a limited number of outlets in Athens, and, possibly, other main Greek cities, as a pilot program for future development, to be carried out through franchise agreements.

The outlets will focus on providing complete energy services and solutions, including energy management studies, issuance of energy-related certificates for buildings, and energy savings proposals. The franchise chain will promote electricity connection packages for PPC, exclusively. Combined energy packages, offering electricty and gas, are also being examined for introduction once the imminent liberalization of the gas market has been completed. The chain also plans to offer new PPC products in response to the anticipated intensified competition in the retail electricity household market once the sector has been fully liberalized.

The chain will also offer complete solutions for domestic self-production via roof-mounted photovoltaic systems as well as net metering services. This field is expected to experience rapid growth.