PPC takes auction start price to CoS

Public Power Corporation has referred the government’s decision to set a starting price for power auctions, a case that is creating unrest in the energy industry,  to the Council of State. If PPC wins its case, it would lead to the overturning of the plans for strengthening competition in the electricity market agreed with the country’s creditors.

PPC’s recourse to the country’s highest administrative court on Monday against the decision made by then energy minister Panos Skourletis has worried the market, which discerns in this case characteristics similar to the matter of TV licensing that also ended up in an impasse.

Private investors have participated in the first electricity auction, making down payments for quantities they are supposed to start receiving in December, without knowing whether in the mean time there will be a Council of State decision on the case that could annul the auction.

That would result not only in the suspension of the auction system that has been introduced as a transitional mechanism until 2019 for the opening up of the market, it would also render impossible the delivery of energy the private companies have acquired through the auction and on which they have made their business plans.