Yesterday, while the energy minister Panos Skourletis was trumpeting the “disruption management” plan – enabling energy cost savings for major-scale industry in exchange for shifting energy usage to off-peak hours whenever required by the operator – as a beneficial pricing tool policy for the industrial sector, the main power utility PPC was undermining the recently introduced initiative’s second auction session by submitting extremely low offers intended to flatten the session, disgruntled energy-intensive industry officials have protested.
In comments offered to energypress, industrial sector officials expressed their discontent, adding that the events at yesterday’s auction could have a domino effect and negatively impact negotiations between PPC and industrial enterprises for new tariff deals.
Detailed data provided by IPTO, the power grid operator, for yesterday’s auction showed that PPC’s five mines were the first to submit offers, at a level of five euros per MWh. Market officials condemned PPC’s behavior as undesirable and provocative, noting that the utility’s sole intention was to keep prices low and not be credited with money from the process.
Interestingly, yesterday’s session for short-term agreements ended up offering subsidized support to PPC’s mines while excluding bids from active major factories and industries such as Corinth Pipeworks from the process and offering smaller-than-expected capacities to others. A total of 15 offers totaling 137.6 MW were not accepted.
The situation was worse for longer-term agreements. A total of 34 offers totaling 175.1 MW were left out, including Solk, MEL (Macedonian Paper Mills), and Halkor.
Prices for short-term agreements reached 30,000 euros per MWh and a total capacity of 650 MW was provided to Titan Cement, Sidenor, Sovel, PPC, Iraklis, Epilektos, MEL, Yioula, Fibran, Halyps, Hellenic Halyvourgia, ELPE (Hellenic Petroleum), and Larco.
In the longer-term agreement category, the auction’s price level reached 21,900 euros per MWh and a total capacity of 850 MW was provided to Titan Cement, Aluminium of Greece, Sidenor, Sovel, PPC, Epilektos, Yioula, Halyps, Hellenic Halyvourgia, ELPE (Hellenic Petroleum), and Larco.