PPC unpaid receivables project bidders want deadline extension

Prospective consulting firm bidders interested in a main power utility PPC tender to offer management of its troubling unpaid receivables issue have requested an extension to the competition’s June 26 deadline.

According to sources, PPC is expected to give potential bidders a few extra weeks to prepare their offers. It is believed that interested parties are now in the process of forming partnerships to submit joint bids as the PPC project is seen as a particularly complex and demanding mission.

The wining bidder will be expected to support the utility collect unpaid receivables, estimated to be worth an alarming total of 2.4 billion euros. The winning bidder will be given access to PPC’s data bank and be expected to also seek additional profile-related information concerning clients behind on their PPC electricity bill payments.

According to the tender’s terms and conditions, the winning bidder will be awarded a sum of 12 million euros if a series of targets are achieved.

Besides bolstering PPC’s collection effort, the consultant will need to add effectiveness and precision to the overall campaign. Clients will need to be divided into separate groups, based on qualitative and quantitative criteria, various collection strategies, depending on client categories, will be pursued, while new products and incentives will also be designed.

Meanwhile, last week’s landslide at PPC’s Amynteo mine in the country’s north, which prompted the temporary closure of the utility’s two Amynteo lignite-fired power stations fed by this mine, has prompted PPC officials to seek the reexamination of electricity amounts the utility is expected to offer through NOME auctions.

The auctions were introduced last October as a bailout requirement aiming to break the utility’s dominance by offering independent rivals access to the utility’s low-cost lignite and hydropower sources.

PPC officials believe that the lignite deposit at the Amynteo mine, currently shut down, needs to be factored in to the equation, whichwould result in a reduction of the electricity amounts offered at NOME auctions. However, details concerning the impact of the landslide at the Amynteo mine still need to be determined.

According to the updated Greek bailout agreement, in 2017, PPC will need to offer 16 percent of its electricity, instead of 12 percent, as had been originally planned. In 2018, the utility must offer 19 percent, up from 13 percent, while, in 2019, the offering needs to rise further, to 22 percent from 13 percent.

A clause included in the agreement allows for the reduction of NOME electricity amounts once a number of PPC production units have been sold. The utility is now preparing a sale list of lignite-fired power stations representing 40 percent of capacity.