Greek PPC: The "green" transformation is on track - Οικονομικός Ταχυδρόμος

PPC is taking another big step in order to reach the goal of 5 GW (gigawatts) of Renewable Energy Sources that it has set for the next five years. By the end of the year the construction of a 200 MW (megawatt) photovoltaic park will have started in the former Amyntaio mines area.

This is one of the projects included in the planning for the joint development of PPC’s portfolio of RES units with the German RWE, with a total capacity of 2 GW. The “METON” has been created – the joint scheme of PPC (49%) and RWE (51%) – just for this purpose. METON also announced the project in Amyntaio.

At the same time, the company’s green branch, DEHAN, has a 550 MW photovoltaic plant under tender, a project with a budget of 216 million euros. The tender concerns the finding of a contractor for the study, supply, transport, installation and commissioning of the station at the PPC mine in Ptolemaida and its connection to the Electricity Transmission System. According to company officials, the contractor will be selected by the end of the year. As for the rest of METON’s projects, they are planned to be developed in two phases, starting from 2023.

Green transition

The specific investments are among the most emblematic that have been planned in the context of delignitization in Western Macedonia, and constitute the driving force that the PPC is planning for the green transition it’s planning.

The two tenders for Amyntaio and Ptolemaida were preceded by the announcement of a tender for four other 94 MW power stations in Western Macedonia at the beginning of last summer, while the agreement for the acquisition of the RES portfolio of Volterra, with a total capacity of 112 MW, was also announced.

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Four new photovoltaic stations

At the same time, in September, DEHAN secured “tariffs” of around 47.65 euros/MWh (megawatt hour) for four new photovoltaic plants with a total capacity of 251 MW in the last competition for submitting offers for RES projects of the Regulatory Authority for Energy (RAE). At the time, the CEO of PPC Renewables, Mr. Konstantinos Mavros, stated that “the PPC group is leading the energy transition in Greece, implementing the development of renewable energy plants at a very fast pace”. According to him, “accelerating this transition is one way and the only way to overcome the existing crisis and ensure the energy autonomy of our country”.

Business plan objectives

The business plan of PPC Renewables aims to reach 1.5 GW of installed capacity by 2023 and 5 GW within five years. Around 500 MW of RES units are currently under construction, of which around 290 MW will be commissioned by the end of the year.

PPC has a “reservoir” of highly mature RES projects, as 4 GW are already in an advanced stage of licensing, 2.2 GW projects have secured connection conditions and approximately 1.8 GW environmental conditions. 2/3 of the projects concern photovoltaic parks, due to their faster completion and the remaining 1/3 wind farms. At the same time, the company is also maturing large energy storage projects, is in discussions with foreign investors for the development of offshore wind farms, while also exploring its expansion in the Balkans.