Power workers blockade energy authority

Public Power Corporation workers blockaded the building of the Greek energy authority RAE on downtown Pireos Street early on Friday morning, in protest at recent revelations regarding private energy suppliers Energa and Hellas Power, which had their licenses revoked on January 24. Workers of the PPC union GENOP blame the Regulatory Authority for Energy for allowing the two providers, both controlled by the Russian-Arab fund Worldwide Energy Ltd, to run up a tab allegedly totaling 200 million euros with PPC and Hellenic Transmission System Operator (DESMIE). They are also demanding that RAE submit a report to the prosecutor investigating the debt case. “Electrical energy is too important a business to leave in the hands of private companies,» GENOP chief Nikos Fotopoulos told NET state television on Friday. In a joint statement, meanwhile, Energa and Hellas Power had claimed earlier that «political intervention, as well as the intervention of PPC and RAE, led the market to the closures in order to satisfy other economic interests.” The two companies have filed a suit against the Greek state for damages in excess of 340 million euros.