site.btaNational Electric Company Will Not Demand Increase of Electricity Price for Households

National Electric Company Will Not Demand Increase of Electricity Price for Households

Sofia, March 12 (BTA) - National Electric Company Executive
Director Peter Iliev Thursday said that he considers immoral a
further increase of the electricity price for households. He was
 speaking before the Ad Hoc Enquiry Committee to Audit and
Assess the State of the Energy Sector in Bulgaria towards
January 31, 2015.
   
Iliev told the parliamentary committee that the average price of
 electricity on the free market currently is around 70 lv/MWh,
while the price for household consumers, who he described as
protected users, is 125 lv/MWh on the regulated market.
   
Thus far, the Energy Act obliged the National Electric Company
(NEK) to buy all the energy produced by plants which have the
corresponding contract, regardless of the fact that the energy
exceeded the quotas set by the regulator. Some plants produce
some 75 per cent more energy than the quota, Iliev specified.
This has led to the accumulation of a huge deficit at NEK, Iliev
 explained.
   
With the amendments to the Energy Act, NEK will buy the energy
from manufacturing plants and heating companies - the so-called
brown energy - only when it is highly effective and meets the
quotas set by the regulator, while the remaining quantities will
 be sold on the free market.
 
Iliev said that NEK buys energy from the AES Maritsa East 1 and
the ContourGlobal Maritsa East 3 thermal power plants for nearly
 50 lv/MWh and 40 lv/MWh, respectively, the expenditures for
emissions excluded. The approved expenditures for buying
hydroelectricity amount to 163.64 lv/MWh.

During the regulatory period from July 1, 2014, to July 1, 2015,
 NEK is obliged to buy energy for the regulatory market mix from
 several plants: from the Kozloduy N-plant for 51 million leva
(3 per cent of expenditures), from the Maritsa East 2 TPP for
113 million leva (6 per cent), from the Maritsa East 1 TPP for
218 million leva (11 per cent), from the Maritsa East 3 for 223
million leva (11 per cent), from renewable energy sources for
101 million leva (5 per cent), and from heating companies and
manufacturing plants for 450 million leva (22 per cent). The
expenditures of NEK total 2,032 billion leva, Iliev summarized.