Greek electricity market desperate for liquidity

One of the most pressing issues Greece's next government will have to tackle is that its electricity sector is desperately short of liquidity. In fact, as daily Kathimerini reports, the country was saved from a blackout shortly before last Sunday's election when the Public Power Corporation (PPC) received an urgent rebate of 200 million euros. The country's Electricity Market Operator (HEMO) needs an urgent infusion of a 350-million-euro loan from the Loans and Deposits Fund in order to pay mainly foreign fuel suppliers. Approval of the loan has been delayed by the country's international creditors, who demand commitments that electricity tariffs be raised as of July 2012 and that guaranteed prices for power produced from renewable sources be reduced. Other pressing energy issues are the sale of lignite mines owned by PPC, which seems to have stalled since mid-2010, and the part-privatizations of the Public Gas Corporation, PPC and Hellenic Petroleum.