PASOK has tabled two amendments to a bill aimed at improving the electricity market: one on switching household consumers from green to blue tariffs, and another on data centres.
On data centres, the amendment proposes minimum distance requirements and strict environmental, acoustic, microclimatic and planning restrictions, the removal of special preferential building terms, and rules governing the allocation of electricity grid capacity for data centres to be located near residential areas. The Environment and Energy Ministry’s bill, due to be debated in plenary tomorrow, also introduces a framework for data centres, which the government says is very strict. PASOK, however, considers the framework in the bill insufficient to protect the country from the changes such large investments could bring. PASOK rapporteur Frangiskos Parasyris said a more organised and detailed framework was needed to set rules as a condition for data centres entering the Greek market and to prevent serious and irreversible consequences from the unplanned, uncoordinated and, in many cases, overly concentrated siting of data centres.
In the same bill, PASOK also tabled an amendment to allow household customers on green tariffs to switch to fixed-term contracts for electricity supply at a fixed price, and to require bills to provide information on the cost of such a contract. PASOK rapporteur Frangiskos Parasyris has said his party is submitting the amendment in view of expected increases in the energy market, particularly in electricity prices, so that consumers can switch to a blue tariff within a reasonable period, but during the winter of 2026-27.
The MP cited figures in a report by RAAEY on household tariffs in 2025, which showed that fixed tariffs were 17% cheaper for monthly consumption of 330 kilowatt-hours. The explanatory report accompanying PASOK’s amendment says that a household consuming 400 kilowatt-hours a month pays €117.98 for energy on PPC’s green tariff in November, while it would pay €64.19 on the company’s cheapest fixed tariff, according to RAAEY figures. “So switching from green to blue tariffs would make a very substantial difference to energy costs, which is what we are seeking in view of developments in the coming period,” the PASOK rapporteur said. Mr Parasyris also said that in 2025 alone, household consumers on green tariffs spent 500 million more than those on blue tariffs. PASOK also proposes requiring green-tariff bills to show the difference between the green tariff price and the price customers would have paid on a fixed tariff.
SOURCE: AMNA