A PWC consulting firm study on main power utility PPC’s industrial tariffs is expected to propose incorporating CO2 emission right costs and determine an average high-voltage revenue figure that ensures a fair profit margin for the utility while also serving as a base for tariff negotiations with industrial consumers leading to new supply agreements.

The plan should be ready by mid-March but the full list of criteria to be applied in the the calculations determining the average revenue figure remains unclear.

The PWC study, requested by the country’s privatization fund, according to PPC’s chief executive Manolis Panagiotakis, is expected to include a proposal for a two-year extension of a volume-based and punctuality discount, while the prospect of a 10 percent industrial tariff increase remains possible.

Early this year, PPC’s boss had made clear the utility’s intention to increase industrial tariffs, adding these revisions would be accompanied by a “small gift”, without elaborating further.

Energy costs have already risen considerably for industrial consumers as CO2 emission right costs, which have been on the rise, are added as a separate cost to mid and high-voltage electricity bills by the utility.

CO2 emission right costs rose to 14 euros per MWh in December from half this amount six months earlier, and increased to 18 euros per MWh in January.