site.btaEighth Regional Energy Conference Opens in Sofia

May 17 (BTA) - "As EU Member State, Bulgaria strictly
adheres to the EU's principal ovjectives and priorities in the
energy sector," Bulgarian Energy Minister Temenouzhka Petkova
said here on Friday, listing a functioning energy market,
ensuring energy security, promoting energy efficiency measures
and a gradual transition to a decarbonized economy.

Petkova was speaking at the opening of the Eighth Regional
Energy Conference: Today's Agenda of Regional Energy
Development: Priorities, Technologies, Markets, organized in
Sofia by the Bulgarian Energy and Mining Forum (BEMF).

The Energy Minister pointed out that the state-owned Maritsa
East 2 TPP has invested more than 1 billion leva in flue-gas
desulfurization over the last 12 years. The same procedure is
followed for the two other power plants in the Maritsa Basin and
 for the rest of the coal-fired TPPs.

Petkova stressed that Bulgaria will progress towards a
decarbonized economy, but she believes that this transition must
 be gradual and reckon with the specificities of each country,
its energy mix and its economy. That is why Bulgaria will
continue to rely on electricity production from coal in the
coming years, mainly because it has local lignite resources that
 will last for another 60 years and that guarantee energy
security and diversification, the Minister specified.

Later on Petkova told journalists that she expects the
solicitation of bids in the procedure for the selection of a
strategic investor in the construction of the Belene N-Plant to
be published in the "Official Journal of the European Union" by
the end of May or in early June.

"The tariff deficit at the National Electricity Company (NEK)
has been reduced to a minimum," the Energy Minister said,
commenting on a statement by Anton Ivanov of the BEMF that "the
gap in the energy sector stands at 5,000 million leva".

"I don't know where Mr Ivanov found these figures. You know the
energy sector deficit that we found when we took over in
November 2014, and you know the action we have taken," Petkova
stressed. She pointed to the establishment of the Electricity
System Security Fund as one of the most successful measures to
stabilize Bulgaria's energy sector and which was highly rated by
 the World Bank and the European Commission.

The Energy Minister added that, eventually, the electricity
market will be fully liberalized, which will require the entry
of all electricity producers on the free market and taking
measures for the tariff deficit. That deficit will be identified
 by the Energy and Water Regulatory Commission and will be
notified to the European Commission, Petkova explained. RY/LG