Press Release - State aid: Commission approves Greek support to improve electricity generation on non-interconnected islands
The European Commission has found Greek plans to support the modernisation of power plants on non-interconnected Greek islands to be in line with EU state aid rules.
In December 2015 Greece notified plans to grant the Greek electricity company PPC a State guarantee, which would enable the company to secure a €190 million loan from the European Investment Bank ('EIB'). This loan will cover half of the costs for the necessary upgrade, expansion and refurbishment of existing power plants on 18 islands not connected to the electricity grid of the mainland.
PPC will finance the other half of the costs from its own budget. The measure involves state aid, because the terms of the public loan are more favourable than those a commercial operator would have accepted. The Commission found that this aid is in line with EU rules, in particular the Commission's 2011 rules on services of general economic interest, since the measure is necessary to allow PPC to continue to supply consumers on the islands concerned with affordable electricity.
It ensures the availability of the required electricity generation capacity on the islands concerned. More information will be available on the Commission's competition website, in the public case register under the case number SA.43168.
(For more information: Lucía Caudet – Tel.: +32 229 56182; Yizhou Ren – Tel.: +32 229 94889)
page source http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release
