The Public Power Corporation (PPC) yesterday countered a European Commisson warning released on Thursday that it maintains a dominant position in the Greek power production market, possibly in breach of competition regulations, by holding exclusive rights on the mining of lignite. PPC said it has mining rights on only about 63 percent of the country’s lignite deposits, for which it paid considerable amounts of money to acquire and it continues to pay a special levy on the mining equal to 0.4 percent of its annual sales revenue.
“PPC is financially burdened for its lignite mining more than any other company in the Europe Union that uses open cast mines for power production,” it said in a statement. PPC said it had not been notified by the government of the Commission warning, which gave Greece two months to either justify or put an end to its use of lignite. Furthermore, it countered the claim of a dominant market position, saying that since deregulation in February 200, the government has granted nine licenses to big European power producers which have already begun exports to large clients in Greece. Lignite is used for 60 percent of Greece’s power production.