PPC to close lignite plants as of 2020
A business plan being drafted by the management of Public Power Corporation includes a sweeping divestment of its lignite-powered plants. The plan, which is expected to be ready by mid-November, is meant to be factored into the structural changes of the local electricity market and the post-bailout assessment of the Greek economy by creditors.
Energy Minister Kostis Hatzidakis’ directions to PPC’s management provide for PPC’s streamlining and the full adoption of European regulations for a transition to the post-lignite era. In response, the utility’s management has started a full cost analysis of the lignite plants to decide which ones will continue to operate and which will be shut down, with sustainability being the sole criterion.
Out of the 14 lignite plants PPC has today, the state-run utility will likely hang onto the plant at Agihos Dimitrios and a new unit in Ptolemaida that is in the process of construction. The gradual withdrawal will likely begin in the first half of 2020, Hatzidakis told Kathimerni in an interview, adding that the first units to go will be Amyntaio and Megalopoli.
PPC is already examining plans to deal with the fallout of the closure of the lignite plants on the personnel and on local communities whose economies have relied on those units for over a century.
