Public Power Corporation

Local stocks took some heavy losses on Wednesday, with banks suffering the most, as market confidence in Greece continued to evaporate, a fact also evident in the growth of bond yields. Investors were keen to walk away from Athinon Avenue, as shown by the increased turnover.

Greece's entire electricity market is seeking an alternative plan to avoid a short circuit that would bust it, due to the risks created by the plan of former energy minister Panos Skourletis for the opening up of the market.

A ministerial decision to let off debtors to the Public Power Corporation with unpaid electricity bills of up to 1,000 euros is costing the Greek power giant close to half a billion euros.

Two out of the country's three biggest alternative providers of electricity, Protergia, which belongs to the Mytilineos Group, and Elpedison, jointly controlled by Edison and Hellenic Petroleum, have openly disputed the model for power auctions aimed at reducing Public Power Corporation's market share.

The state's deal with the Greek banks for the loans issued to Public Power Corporation (PPC) and the approval of grid operator ADMIE's privatization plan is coming into the focus of the European Central Bank's Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) in Frankfurt and the Directorate General for Competition (DGComp) of the European Commission in Brussels.

Greece has picked two former business leaders to run the fund it set up last year to speed up privatizations and make the best use of the country's assets to comply with its international bailout.

Parts of Rhodope and the whole regional unit of Evros, in northern Greece, suffered a power outage at noon on Saturday due to a technical glitch at the local power station, Public Power Corporation (PPC) said.

Power was gradually restored within an hour.

The government is keeping all its options open as regards the future of Public Power Corporation and increasing competition in the electricity market, but it appears it has been forced to move ahead with the sale of 66 percent of the natural gas grid operator (DESFA) despite wishing otherwise.

The scenario of privatized spin-offs of Public Power Corporation, which have been dubbed "Small PPCs," is back on the table as the first power auctions for the reduction of the PPC market share proved ineffective, while Brussels is asking Greece to comply with the decision of the European Court of Justice for breaking PPC's monopoly in lignite use for power production.

The Aegean islands of Paros, Naxos, Ios, Sikinos and Folegandros were left without electricity on Wednesday after a short circuit resulted in damage to the wider region's central power station on Paros.

According to the Public Power Corporation (PPC), the outage occurred at 10.50 a.m. while it said power was expected to be restored later on Wednesday.