Very little interest in coal-fired power plants

The results on Wednesday of the tender for the sale of four coal-fired electricity units at Megalopoli and Meliti that belong to Public Power Corporation confirmed estimates, illustrating that lignite is no longer attractive as a form of fuel.

Despite measures to improve the plants’ operating profits, PPC only received one offer for the Meliti plants, from Mytilineos, which Kathimerini understands was five times below the reasonable price determined by the independent consultant. The bid tabled by the consortium of Seven Energy and GEK Terna for the two Megalopoli plants was destined to fail, containing terms that weren’t included in the proposed contract PPC had approved. This was announced by the consortium itself in a statement saying it “decided to submit a binding offer on the basis of an alternative version of the transaction contract that includes a more balanced distribution of risks between seller and buyer, and bridges the gap between the expectations of the seller and the buyer in relation to the development of the electricity market.”

PPC formally spoke of two bids, while informally it said that it had only asked Mytilineos for an offer improvement, which was already taken for granted given that the Greek-Czech consortium’s bid was below standard. Mytilineos has been asked to table an improved bid by this morning, to be discussed by the PPC board later in the day.