PPC plans fewer, but cost-effective, power stations
The Public Power Corporation (PPC), Greece’s electricity utility, will replace up to nine old stations with four new units at a cost of 1.2 billion euros ($1.46 billion), a senior company official said yesterday. «The company will replace between seven and nine old power stations with four new plants,» Abraham Mizan, general manager of PPC’s generation division, told Reuters. Mizan said the new units, with a total capacity of 1,600 megawatts, will lead to significant fuel savings for PPC, with fuel consumption up to 45 percent lower than existing units. PPC, 51 percent state-owned, is struggling to cut costs amid soaring oil prices, low regulated tariffs and intensifying competition from new entrants. PPC’s net profit last year fell by a bigger-than-expected 54 percent to 135.7 million euros, hit by high fuel costs, energy imports and low electricity rates. «The cost of our imported fuels will go up by 16 percent this year,» he said. Strike today PPC workers will hold a one-day strike today to back demands for an above-inflation pay rise in 2006, a senior PPC unionist said yesterday. «We want an 8-10 percent wage increase this year,» Nikos Pilalidis, head of the General Federation of Employees of PPC (GENOP), told Reuters. Skeleton staff will be on call at PPC during the strike, to ensure there will be no power disruptions. The strike by GENOP, among the most powerful union in the country, puts pressure on PPC management as it seeks to cut costs. Pilalidis said PPC management has not responded to the federation’s calls for a meeting to discuss the pay issue. PPC did not want to comment. The federation represents 25,500 workers in the electricity sector. PPC employs about 27,200. The government sees inflation averaging at 3.2 percent this year. PPC’s total payroll spending, which makes up about a third of total operating costs, went up by 8 percent last year to 1.25 billion euros. PPC workers received a total wage rise of 6.2 percent last year. (Reuters)
