Public Power Corp. (PPC), Greece’s dominant power utility, reported a strong adjusted EBITDA performance over the past two-year period, reaching 1.8 billion euros – or 41% – since 2023.
In a press release on Wednesday, the ATHEX-listed utility said an increase in investments in RES’s, “flexible production”, as well as in the distribution and digitalization infrastructure, has reduced risks for the company in the wake of its de-lignification process.
PPC said total investments reached three billion euros, of which it said 85% are growth oriented.
Installed power through renewable energy sources reached 5.5GW at the end of 2024, up from 4.6GW in 2023, and will eventually total 6.2GW after the completion of works in progress.
PPC’s lignite production in 2024 was reduced by 28% compared to 2023 to fall to 3.2TWh, which corresponds to 15% of the utility’s total production.
Conversely, RES production recorded a marginal increase in 2024 compared to 2023 (6.2TWh), despite a drop in hydroelectric production due to lower water reserves, or 29% of PPC’s total production. As a result, the sum of CO2 emissions (Scope 1) was reduced by roughly 2% compared to 2023.
A recent announcement by Greece’s Regulatory Authority for Energy, Waste and Water (RAAEY) said PPC ended 2024 with a market share of 71.69% in the low-voltage sector, supplying 5.52 million power meters around the east Mediterranean country, slightly down from 72.3 percent and 5.56 million power meters a year earlier.
Data center ‘valley’
In a related development, PPC CEO Georgios Stassis on Wednesday first announced, in a teleconference with market analysts, that the Ptolemaida V lignite-fired unit will be shut down by 2025 and subsequently converted to an open cycle natgas-fired unit (350MW) by 2027. The unit is projected to produced up to 500MW when up and running.
PPC CEO Georgios Stassis.
Additionally, Stassis revealed that the prospect for the construction of a 300MW data center in the wider Kozani area of western Macedonia – the “heart” of Greece lignite fields and PPC power production.
He said with energy will be supplied by the converted Ptolemaida unit, photovoltaic production of up to 1.3GW and mega-batteries of 300MW, along with two hydroelectric reservoirs, 320 and 240MW, respectively.
In pointing to the creation of a data center “valley”, in fact, Stassis said PPC-owned land will host such infrastructure, which high-voltage lines already in place and within an hour-and-a-half from Thessaloniki.
