site.btaPrice Cuts of Heating Energy Smaller than Preliminary Announced Reductions

Price Cuts of Heating Energy Smaller than Preliminary Announced Reductions

Sofia, March 31 (BTA) - The Electricity and Water Regulatory
Commission (EWRC) has determined new, lower, prices of heating
energy and hot water as of April 1, it emerges from a decision
of EWRC uploaded on its website. The reductions are smaller than
the preliminary announced price cuts.

The heating and hot water price in Sofia is cut by 7.05 per
cent, in Plovdiv, Southern Bulgaria, by 8 per cent, in Varna,
Eastern Bulgaria, by 8.4 per cent, in Vratsa, Northwestern
Bulgaria, by 7.7 per cent, in Razgrad, Northeastern Bulgaria, by
7.57 per cent, in Veliko Turnovo, Northern Bulgaria, by 5.2
per cent. The price reduction is negligible in Bourgas, on the
Black Sea, and Pleven, Northern Bulgaria, by 0.09 per cent and
0.9 per cent respectively.

The initial announcements were about price cuts of between 6 and
13 per cent.

The smaller than planned reductions are attributed to the
difference in the overall financial results of the heating
plants in 2013 and 2014. The EWRC has found that the overall
financial result at the end of 2014 was a loss of 77,055,000
leva, against a profit of 17,810,000 leva at the end of 2013.

The regulator also decided to reduce the preferential prices at
which heating plants sell electricity, also by a smaller
percentage than was preliminary announced. The reduction of the
price for the Sofia heating utility is by 4.7 pet cent, and
between 3.7 per cent and 4.3 per cent for the other heating
plants.