On Friday 10 September, the European Commission decided to make legally binding, under EU antitrust rules, measures proposed by Greece to allow competitors of Public Power Corporation (PPC), the Greek state-owned electricity incumbent, to buy more electricity in the longer term (see EUROPE 12679/6).
Greece proposed these measures to eliminate the distortion created by PPC’s exclusive access to electricity generation from lignite, which the Commission and the EU courts had found to create an inequality of opportunity in the Greek electricity markets.
The proposed remedies will lapse when existing lignite power plants stop operating commercially (which is currently expected by 2023) or, at the latest, by the end of 2024.
According to Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice-President for Competition Policy, the decision and the measures proposed by Greece “enable PPC’s competitors to better hedge against price volatility, which is a vital element for them to compete in the market for retail electricity and offer stable prices to consumers”. The measures go hand in hand with Greece’s plans to decommission its highly polluting lignite power plants, Vestager said.
In 2018, the Commission found that Greece had breached competition rules by granting PPC privileged access rights to lignite.
On 1 September 2021, Greece submitted an amended version of the remedies: - PPC will sell quarterly forward electricity products on the European Energy Exchange. - PPC will be given a net seller status on the European Energy Exchange (EEX) and/or Hellenic Energy Exchange (HEnEx).
The obligations imposed on PCC regarding the timing of sales and deliveries will give PPC’s competitors the possibility to hedge sufficiently in advance against price volatility. Link to the case: https://bit.ly/3hhPUZG (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)