Officials representing Chinese energy giant China Three Gorges Corporation (CTG), a state-controlled enterprise behind the construction and operation of the world’s biggest hydropower project, the Three Gorges Dam project, were in Athens yesterday to explore investment opportunities, including the prospective sale of main power utility PPC hydropower units, sources noted.

It looks like Greece’s state-controlled PPC utility will eventually need to sell hydropower units, ongoing bailout negotiations between government officials and Greece’s lenders for the second review’s conclusion strongly indicate.

CTG officials were included in a visiting delegation of Chinese entrepreneurs who held a meeting in Athens yesterday with key Greek officials.

Members of the Chinese delegation held talks with deputy economy and development minister Stergios Pitsiorlas as well as officials representing Enterprise Greece, a state-sponsored investment support group, to discuss investment opportunities offered by the Greek market and establish ties with related ministries.

SGCC, the State Grid Corporation of China, which has agreed to acquire a 24 percent stake of power grid operator IPTO, a subsidiary of main power utility PPC, and  CMEC, which has signed an MOU with PPC for the development of a second power station at Meliti in northern Greece’s Florina area, were not represented by the visiting Chinese group.

CTG is responsible for the construction and operation of the world’s biggest hydropower project, the Three Gorges Dam project, possessing a 22,500 MW-capacity, almost double Greece’s total power-generating capacity.

Present in 40 countries, CTG is ranked the world’s biggest hydropower producer. The total capacity of Chinese power hydropower stations under its control measures over 46,300 MW. Adding CTG’s investments beyond China takes the firm’s installed capacity figure to 100 GW.

In 2014, CTG generated 201.2 TWh of electricity, approximately five times the energy produced and used in Greece, for revenues of 10.1 billion dollars and a profit of 3.3 billion dollars.

Late in 2011, CTG participated in the privatization process of Portugal’s power utility Energias de Portugal, acquiring a 21.35 percent stake for 2.69 billion euros.