Greece’s top electricity producer Public Power Corp. (PPC) will face high costs from 2013 because of its carbon dioxide emissions, its chief executive has warned.
“From 2013 PPC will need to pay about €800m ($968m) annually to buy CO2 emission rights under the framework of EU policies to limit climate change,” PPC CEO Arthouros Zervos told Sunday’s Kathimerini newspaper in an interview.
Zervos said lignite use by PPC is not about to end but its role as a fuel in its power generation plants will come down in the years ahead.
The CEO also told the paper that without raising electricity prices, PPC is bound to face serious problems.
“Based on our projections, in 2012 we will have profit of €400m to €500m. But in 2013 we will have losses of €400m to €500m. There is no alternative, either tariffs will be raised or PPC will go bust,” Zervos told the paper.
Western European countries have given strong backing to deeper cuts to climate-warming emissions as the EU plans to cut CO2 by 20% over the next decade.
