ATHENS (Dow Jones)--Greece's dominant electricity company, Public Power Corp. SA (PPC.AT), or PPC, said it will invest EUR1.95 billion in renewables between 2008 and 2014 to gain a 22% market share.
"PPC Renewables SA, a 100%-owned subsidiary of PPC, has already started the process of constructing a solar energy park in Megalopolis - with a 50 megawatt capacity- second largest in the world," the company said in a statement Sunday.
At the same time, the company announced investments of about EUR1.5 billion in the central Peloponnese region, including a 800 MW combined cycle power plant in Megalopolis.
The statement followed the approval of PPC Renewables' business plan in November, which set a target of 950 MW of installed renewable energy sources capacity by 2014, to be partly funded by cash transfers totalling EUR330 million from PPC to PPC Renewables during the period 2008-2011.
In a speech over the weekend, Chairman and Chief Executive Takis Athanasopoulos said "the main objective of PPC Renewables is to be competitive and for this reason we are open to cooperation with other big international and Greek companies for developing our businesses."
Last January, PPC said its renewables subsidiary would team up with France's EDF Energies Nouvelles SA (EEN.FR) to jointly build wind-generated power facilities with total power of 122 megawatts, scheduled for completion by 2009.
PPC also signed a memorandum of understanding with renewable energy producer C. Rokas SA (ROKKA.AT) - which is 49.9%-owned by Spain's Iberdrola SA (IBE.MC) - to conduct a feasibility study of a planned EUR2.4 billion wind farm project in the Northern Aegean.
Including its planned investments in renewables, PPC's business plan, which was announced last month, penciled in an overall investment of EUR12.5 billion by 2014, ranging from the replacement of 3,700 megawatts of existing power plants, to connecting Greece's islands with a high-voltage power line to the mainland.
However, PPC is increasingly under pressure from several new entrants into the market - among them Italy's Enel (EN) and Edison (EDN.MI) and Spain's Endesa SA (ELE.MC), jointly owned by Enel and Acciona SA (ANA.MC).
Edison said in July that it signed a memorandum of understanding with Hellenic Petroleum SA (ELPE.AT) in Greece to pool their respective Greek electricity operations in a 50-50 joint venture that will become the country's second-largest power producer.
Metals and energy group Mytilineos Holdings SA (MYTIL.AT) said in March that it reached a deal with Endesa to form a EUR1.2 billion joint venture that will be Greece's largest independent power company, and aims to move into other countries in southeast Europe.