Retail outlets to open for extended business hours, digital products and new services, swifter withdrawals of lignite-fired power stations, as well as an acceleration in the development of major-scale and smaller RES projects are among the factors contributing to power utility Public Power Corporation (PPC) new corporate image, showcased yesterday, during a 40-minute event, by chief executive Georgios Stassis, who described the new image as a prelude of a revised business plan to be presented towards the end of the year.
The revised business plan, to have a three-year duration, will be a more ambitious and confident plan than last year’s version as, besides swifter lignite unit exits, it will feature bolder digitalization steps, a more aggressive retail market policy, aim for a RES portfolio well over 1 GW over the next three years, through a pool of prospective projects totaling 6 GW, and also feature network and personnel investments.
Yesterday’s announcements represent just part of the developments to be gradually announced by PPC, the most imminent being a new series of digital products, dubbed PPC myHome, to be launched within the next few days.
“Following our very encouraging economic results, we can today announce yet another package of relief measures for our clients, who are seeing their income under pressure due to the pandemic,” Stassis said.
Speaking at the event, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said that PPC “has changed its entire focus in the last 14 months – it has changed from a slow-moving company with debts, losses, stuck mentalies, threat of non-viability, into a contemporary energy power.” The emergency measures he noted saved the company from collapse. “We proved that in an open economy there are several paths to progress and that the corporate transformation of a public utility can occur under difficult circumstances […] and it can become absolutely competitive,” the premier said.
The new business plan’s level of ambition will also depend on external factors, Brussels being pivotal. Settlement of the country’s ten-year lignite dispute with the European Commission will offer state-controlled PPC greater leeway.
PPC is also hoping for a favorable Brussels response within November on a compensation request for 200 million euros, annually, for every year lignite-fired power stations in the west Macedonia and Megalopoli regions will need to keep operating.
