PPC reports major increase in EBITDA for 2020, as reforms pay off

ATHEX-listed and state-managed Public Power Corp. (PPC) on Tuesday announced a significant increase in EBITDA for 2020, at 885.8 million euros, up from 333.6 million euros reported in 2019, or by 19.1 percent to 6.8 percent.

The development comes after major reforms were implemented in September 2019, two months after center-right New Democracy (ND) assumed power in a landslide election victory, and after successive years of staggering losses totaling hundreds of millions of euros.

Other factors that ameliorated PPC’s previous grave fiscal situation were a drop in the price of natural gas and the wholesale electricity market, while a lower volume of CO2 emissions – due to a decrease in the use of lignite as a fuel to fire power plants – meant commensurate reductions in “greenhouse gas” duties.

Other positive factors were “housekeeping” in payroll costs and an abolition in NOME-type auctions for future power production, which often saw very low winning bids.

PPC, which for decades was a state-owned and run electricity vertical monopoly in Greece, remains the dominant residential, business and industrial power provider in the country, despite a liberalization of the sector.