Greece's power regulator RAE will hold an emergency meeting next week to avert a collapse of the debt-stricken country's electricity and natural gas system, it said on Friday.
RAE took the decision after receiving a letter, dated May 31, from Greece's natural gas company DEPA threatening to cut supplies to electricity producers if they failed to settle their arrears with the company.
"RAE is taking crisis initiatives throughout next week to avert the collapse of the natural gas and electricity system," the regulator's chief, Nikos Vasilakos, told Reuters.
RAE has summoned DEPA and the affected companies to a meeting on Wednesday, Vassilakos said.
According to an energy industry source who declined to be named, DEPA has no cash to settle gas supply bills worth a total 120 million euros ($148.4 million) with Italian gas firm Eni , Turkey's Botas and Russia's Gazprom that fall due this month.
DEPA's CEO Haris Sahinis declined to comment on the company's cash position but told Reuters: "DEPA is taking every action to avoid owing anything to its suppliers."
If DEPA cuts off supplies, Greece's independent power producers such as Elpedison, Mytilineos, Heron and Corinth Power - which cover about 30 percent of the country's power demand - would be forced to stop operations.
These producers use natural gas, much of it supplied by DEPA, to produce about 70 percent of their total electricity output. Greece's dominant electricity company PPC uses natural gas to a much lesser extent than the other producers.
Power companies have failed to pay their bills to DEPA because they, in turn, have not been reimbursed by LAGHE, a state-run clearing account for the nation's energy transactions.
Reliant on bailout funds from lenders to keep afloat, Greece risks running out of money this month without a fresh injection of aid from its European partners.