200,000 consumers return to the PPC!

Energa and Hellas Power are the two private companies that had gained a significant share of the heretofore PPC monopoly, but they can no longer meet the obligations of HTSO, the operator of the electricity transmission system, and the PPC, having already incurred a debt of around 90 million euros.

The two companies, which announced reportedly that they are under transfer to a Russian-Arabic fund under the name Worldwide Energy and based in the free economic zone of Saudi Arabia, did not submit the amount of 24 million euros to HTSO on Tuesday, although they had received it via the bills from their customers as a fee for the RES.

Accordingly, the two companies have indebted the PPC with 67 million euros. These amounts are also received through their customers’ bills as charges for network use and public service obligations, which should have been paid back to the state electricity company.

This matter was the subject of an hour-long meeting held yesterday at the ministry of Environment with the participation of HTSO and RAE. According to sources, HTSO is ready to stop transactions for the two companies which would automatically mean that their customers will go back to the PPC, which operates as a "last resort" in electricity transmission.

These 200,000 consumers will start paying increased bills compared with what they have been paying until now. If the gap is not covered, according to the rules of the market, the other "players" in power will be invited to contribute, starting with the PPC itself, whatever this means for the consumers.

The issue does not stop at the serious malfunctions present in the electricity market, as certain information mentions that SDOE raided the offices of at least one of the two companies and is looking for the actual owners, who are lost in offshore companies somewhere on planet Earth!

Please note that Energa’s original principal shareholder was the Austrian Verbund, which included the Austrian government too, and the control of Hellas Power was acquired, under the name Aegean Power, by the well-known Aegean brand of Dimitris Melissanidis’ interests.

However, apparently realizing what they had gotten themselves into, both shareholders left the two companies, withdrawing their brand names of course. Until the appearance of the Russian-Arabic fund, the latter were controlled by Aristides Floros and Vassilis Milionis, who belong to a generation of young entrepreneurs.