The government’s climate change rules concerning the country’s withdrawal plan for power utility PPC’s lignite-fired power stations appears headed for a slight relaxation by taking into account the difficulties brought about by the energy crisis, leaving 2028 as the only definite deadline for the withdrawal of the utility’s very last lignite facility, Ptolemaida V, a new facility yet to be launched.

A plan for an accelerated withdrawal of all existing lignite-fired power stations by 2023, announced by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis at a UN Climate Action Summit in 2019, is now being reassessed and has been put through public consultation running until December 24, the objective being to ensure grid sufficiency in the face of changes.

The withdrawal of lignite-fired power stations, all operated by PPC, is a tricky equation as a swift procedure promising to curtail PPC’s lignite-related losses – these units are currently profitable, an energy crisis abnormality – needs to be balanced with grid sufficiency protection.