``The units are back to full operation,'' Avraam Mizan, Public Power's general manager for electricity production, said today in a telephone interview.
An undisclosed number of local residents barricaded themselves at the plant near the town of Kozani on Saturday, demanding jobs and cheaper electricity. The protesters disrupted the supply and distribution of lignite. Protesters agreed to end the action after Public Power managers in Athens pledged to receive a delegation to discuss the demands, Mizan said.
Public Power had warned of blackouts because the unit supplies a fifth of the country's electricity. The plant burns lignite and is particularly important this year because a lack of rainfall has given the company less hydropower.
Lignite, a soft, brownish-black form of coal, is the single biggest source of electricity in Greece. Public Power, 51 percent owned by the government, generates about 97 percent of Greece's electricity.
Snowfall in some areas last weekend didn't replenish falling water reserves, Mizan said. ``Unfortunately, snowfall happened in the wrong part of the country and not in the west, where most hydro plants are located,'' he said.
Rainfall in December dropped to about a sixth of its long- term average, according to data from Greece's meteorological service. Water reserves for power generation dropped to an equivalent of 1.3 gigawatt-hours of electricity, almost half as much as in the same period last year.
Greece, which has no nuclear power, can import electricity through low-capacity 400-kilovolt lines from Bulgaria, Macedonia and Italy. Turkey will be able export electricity to Greece after a new 400-kilovolt line between the two countries goes into service, probably in late 2007 or early 2008. Greece and Italy are considering a second electricity connection across the Adriatic Sea.
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