Negotiations to resume on lignite plant sale
The government and Public Power Corporation (PPC) are in the next few days set to return to the drawing board as regards the sale of lignite plants, in cooperation with the European Commission, following the completion of the market test on December 22.
The objective is to create an attractive and financially sustainable portfolio within March that will be put up for sale through tender procedures in June. The main issues that came up during the market test that the Commission’s Directorate General for Competition conducted – a process with a non-binding character – were the attractiveness and sustainability of the plants for sale.
The fact that the questionnaire which 40 potential investors were invited to complete did not come with any crucial data for the assessment of the portfolio for sale, such as the number of workers, left the impression that everything remains open and will also depend on the response and comments of investors.
The first reservation shared by potential investors is related to the cost of carbon dioxide emissions and how this will evolve in the long term, ahead of the 2030 deadline for the curtailing of CO2 emissions by 40 percent as foreseen in the European Union’s Clean Energy package.
