Greek state-controlled Public Power Corporation’s (PPC) plan is to reduce its workforce to 11,500 by 2024 from 15,300 at the end of 2019. PPC has decided to hire a consultant to handle its voluntary layoff program for employees working at lignite-fired power plants, which should be closed in line with the country’s decarbonization plan.
The consultant will focus on the structure of the voluntary layoff program, its incentives, timing and extent within PPC’s workforce, not including employees eligible for retirement and workers to be transferred to other company units. PPC plans to appoint a consultant in the immediate future with the objective of announcing the full details of its voluntary layoff program towards the end of this year.
The first of PPC’s lignite-fired plants to be shut down should be two units at TPP Amynteo, which should be closed at the end of April. However, it looks like the plant will continue operation until the end of the year.
According to initial timetable of gradual withdrawal of lignite-fired units operated by PPC, Kardia I and II, each with a capacity of 275 MW, Amynteo I and II, each with 273 MW will be withdrawn by the end of 2020, Kardia III and IV (280 MW each) by the end of 2021, Megalopoli III (255 MW) by the end of 2022, Agios Dimitrios I and II (274 MW each) by the end of 2023, Agios Dimitrios III and IV (283 MW each) by the end of 2025, Agios Dimitrios V (342 MW) by end of 2027 and finally Meliti I (289 MW) and Megalopoli IV (256 MW) by end of 2028. TPP Ptolemaida V, PPC’s lignite-fired power plant which is still under construction, will enter the system in 2022 and produce until 2028. Ptolemaida V could then take on some sort of back-up role beyond 2028, as a converted gas-fired unit.
