Main power utility PPC will apply four criteria to group the country’s high-voltage major-scale industrial enterprises into categories as a means of helping shape the new tariff rate proposals to be offered separately to each company, the utility’s board decided yesterday.

PPC intends to make its customized tariff proposals to major-scale industrial enterprises, 32 in total, once this new tariff-determining approach is approved at the utility’s shareholders meeting, scheduled for December 7.

Consumer profiles, load curves – variation in electricity demand over specific periods – amount of operating hours, and time zones chosen to operate – nighttime and weekends will help produce lower rates – are the four criteria to be used in the pricing policy process. The criteria are expected to produce between seven and ten sub-categories.

The utility plans to offer three-year electricity tariff deals to industrialists. If a bid by PPC for free carbon emission rights, based on the country’s reduced GDP size, now below 60 percent of the EU average, is approved by the European Commission, the resulting savings for the utility will be rolled over to consumers, PPC has noted.

According to sources, the new customized high-voltage electricity tariffs are expected to reduce electricity costs for the industrial sector by a total of between 60 million and 70 million euros per year.

Implementation of the “disruption management” plan – to enable energy cost savings for major-scale industry in exchange for shifting energy usage to off-peak hours whenever required by IPTO, the power grid operator – promises to add further savings of between 45 million to 50 million euros for the sector. This plan is expected to be authorized within the next few days, according to a top-ranked energy ministry official.

It is considered certain that the new industrial tariffs will average more than 47 euros per MWh, the level charged following a 20 percent discount offered to high-voltage industrial enterprises, now being scrapped as part of bailout reform demands in exchange for cost-reflective tariffs. According to sources, PPC will definitely push to recover amounts it missed out on as a result of the implementation of the 20 percent discount over the past two years, valued at 11.8 euros per MWh. Subsequently, the new industrial tariffs are expected to average over 58 euros per MWh.