The uneven implementation of a measure compensating carbon emission right costs, delays in adjusting to EU directives, and the weight of a supplier surcharge are seriously threatening the level of competitiveness of Greece’s energy-intensive industrial enterprises, the energy committee heads at SEV, the Hellenic Association of Industrialists, have stressed.

Distortions affecting the carbon emission right offsetting measure are burdening the industrial sector with additional energy costs of more than 50 million euros, the SEV energy committee leaders, Evangelos Mytilineos, CEO at the Mytilineous corporate group, and Titan cement’s chief Dimitris Papalexopoulos, stressed in a joint letter.

It was forwarded to energy minister Giorgos Stathakis, deputy prime minister Yiannis Dragasakis and Mihalis Filippou, the head of LAGIE, the Electricity Market Operator.

Carbon emission right compensation amounts for the industrial sector are based on average emission right price costs of the previous year, whereas the main power utility PPC is applying emission right price levels of the previous month. This has led to a huge discrepancy in compensation amounts offered as, in 2017, the average emission price cost was 5.7 euros per ton while the price level in late February ranged between 13 and 14 euros per ton.

The heads of SEV’s energy committee called for the energy ministry and LAGIE to fully resort to existing laws, at national and EU levels, to resolve the matter.

The RES-supporting supplier surcharge is causing serious problems for the industrial sector, the SEV energy committee leaders also noted in their letter. The surcharge has hindered competition in the retail electricity market and also represents another setback affecting the industrial sector’s level of competititiveness, the officials noted.