Greece gets informal EU approval to push back sale of coal-fired plants, source says

The European Commission has informally allowed Greece's Public Power Corp. (PPC) to extend the deadline for binding bids for three coal-fired plants by three weeks, an energy ministry source said on Monday.

Greece agreed to sell the plants under its latest international bailout, which ended in August. The source said potential bidders and advisors had requested that the deadline be delayed until after the Christmas holiday period to give them more time.

PPC, which is 51 percent state-owned, has shortlisted all six investors interested in buying Meliti I and two other plants in Megalopoli on the Peloponnese peninsula, as well as a license to build a new plant, Meliti II, in northern Greece.

The deadline for the final bids had been set at Dec. 15, and it is not known if all six will submit bids.

An energy ministry official told Reuters on condition...

Continue reading on: