The strategic plan to turn Western Macedonia into an energy and technology hub ("West Macedonia Valley") will be revealed by Public Power Corporation (PPC) in the presence of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis at Ptolemaida on Thursday.

The core of the strategic plan relies on PPC's actions to withdraw lignite from the energy mix, develop renewable energy sources (RES), and gain a foothold in the sector of data centers, which PPC management believes is promising. 
PPC CEO Giorgos Stassis has described the strategy.

- Decarbonization: The last lignite-powered plant 5 of PPC in Ptolemaida (660 megawatt capacity, construction completed in 2024) will be withdrawn from production in 2026, but will not stop operation. It will be converted into a natural gas unit with the option of also burning hydrogen in the future. In the first phase, as of 2027, the unit will operate on an open cycle with a 350 MW capacity and the option of upgrading it to combined cycle of a 500 MW capacity.

- New RES: Large-scale production is projected for Western Macedonia, with 550 MW capacity (367 MW have already been constructed, the rest will be set up this year), with two additional stations completed in the first quarter of the year. The former lignite mines of Ptolemaida (except Unit 5, above) will host photovoltaics of 1.2 gigabyte capacity, batteries of 300 MW, and two hydroelectric stations to cool the lignite units by using existing water resources.

- Data centers: According to Stassis at PPC's 2024 results, Europe lags behind the United States by 1-1.5 years in new data centers, driven by the need for artificial intelligence. A demand will show up in Europe, which does not have extensive land capacity for new infrastructure, while the centers require a lot of electrical energy to cool their facilities. These issues can be resolved in Western Macedonia, with its access to electricity and telecommunications networks, energy production, human resources, available land, and easy licensing. PPC is looking for a partner to build 300-MW data centers that could be expanded to 1000 MW in another phase. The cost of such an investment is assessed as high as 8 billion euros (investment cost of 7-8 million euros/MW), PPC said.