Consumers wait in line at a public office of Greece's Public Power Corporation (PPC) in Athens August 30, 2012. Greece's biggest electricity producer PPC saw its first-half profit almost wiped out by unpaid bills, taxes and rising energy costs caused by the country's debt crisis. REUTERS/John Kolesidis (GREECE - Tags: POLITICS BUSINESS ENERGY)
Greece’s Environment & Energy Minister Kostis Chatzidakis accused the Tsipras government of brining the Public Power Corporation (PPC) "on the brink" of a financial meltdown.
Chatzidakis made the accusation during a media interview on Friday with Parapolitika radio station where he criticised the previous government for its handling of the main power supplier of Greece.
The Minister referred to SYRIZA and the Agreement with the European Commission on NOMES auctions, saying they " agreed to reduce PPC's share in market from 90% to 50%, without any financial exchange." In addition, they were also "celebrating the selloff of 66% of the national system of natural gas (DESFA), and of 49% of the transmission operator (ADMIE)."
According to the NOMEs (Nouvelle Organisation du Marche de l'Electricite) system, party of PPC's energy production was supposed to be sold through auctions in order to reduce the company's market share to 50 pct by 2020.
Chatzidakis said this government will abolish the NOMEs auctions, as PPC lost a total of 600 million euros by selling energy to its competitors at prices severely below cost. The transition to a new model of a liberated energy market should have happened for PPC carefully and under European rules, not the shoddy way that it was heading to, Chatzidakis charged. This is not a question of antagonizing other power suppliers and their customers, but of finding some balance in the market, he noted.
Other measures to bolster PPC include raising the price of electricity, he said but added that consumers would not feel it in their household bills because of reductions in VAT and in the special levy for reduced air emission of pollutants (ETMEAR) that appear on bills.