ADMIE cash must reach RES units
The 622 million euros that Public Power Corporation (PPC) has collected from the sale of the Independent Power Transmission Operator (ADMIE) will not remain in its coffers for long, since its total obligations to suppliers, contractors, market entities and others exceed 1.8 billion euros.
Its creditors are already queueing up, with the renewable energy source (RES) producers first in line waiting for PPC to start covering at least part of its debts to ADMIE and the Hellenic Electricity Distribution Network Operator (DEDDIE), so that the former PPC subsidiaries can in turn pay off their 800-million-euro debt to the Electricity Market Operator (LAGIE), destined for the accounts of RES producers.
In April and May LAGIE filed lawsuits seeking the payment of 655 million euros in expired debts, of which 512 million concern funds – destined for the RES producers – that consumers have not paid. LAGIE is also seeking expired debts of 130 million.
Court documents show that the 800 million owed to RES producers connected to the grid are due to the nonpayment of dues from November 2016 to April 2017, while part of the October 2016 payment is also due.
The expired debts that DEDDIE owes to RES producers on non-connected islands add up to 67 million euros. LAGIE’s unpaid debts to conventional power producers – which are also waiting for the payment chain reaction from PPC to ADMIE to LAGIE – run up to more than 100 million euros.
There is additional pressure on PPC to pay off ADMIE and DEDDIE, as there is also a judicial investigation under way by the Regulatory Authority for Energy aiming to find out whether the RES levies collected from consumers through electricity bills have been withheld.
The first batch of PPC payments to ADMIE and DEDDIE is expected very soon. “This is the last time PPC sells an asset and the revenues do not go toward investments but to the repayment of debts,” says PPC head Dimitris Panagiotakis, who hopes that takings from future sales of power units have better fortune.