Power utility PPC’s newly appointed chief executive Giorgos Stassis, preparing to officially assume his post on August 22, faces an enormous task comprised of a series of hurdles that will need to be cleared by September 24, when Ernst & Young, the utility’s certified auditor, is due to issue a new report on the utility’s financial standing.

Much will need to be accomplished over this one-month dash if the auditor is to leave out from the report unsettling news on the power utility’s sustainability.

The new PPC boss will need to strike a fine balance in order to increase electricity tariffs, needed to boost the utility’s revenues, without burdening consumers, the idea being to offset these tariff hikes by reducing a RES-supporting ETMEAR surcharge included on electricity bills. However, this could prove tricky as renewable energy producers, too, must not be affected.

It remains to be seen if the collective cash inflow of the upcoming measures will be enough to stabilize PPC.

State-controlled PPC is anticipating a series of cash injections endorsed by the government, including a 190 million-euro return for public service compensation (YKO) concerning 2011.

Also, PPC also intends to securitize unpaid receivables worth 2.7 billion euros. This securitization plan, shaped by PPC’s previous administration, could lead to collections of between 400 and 500 million euros, but they are not expected to start coming in until October.

The electricity tariff increase, which could be around 10 percent, would boost PPC’s annual turnover of 4.7 billion euros by 450 million euros. The hike will most likely be implemented in September, meaning just 110 million of this amount would be injected into PPC’s coffers by the end of this year.