site.btaElectricity Price Rise Does not Include Old Costs for Belene, Tsankov Kamak Projects

Electricity Price Rise Does not Include
Old Costs for Belene, Tsankov
Kamak Projects


Sofia, September 26 (BTA) -The upcoming increase of the price of
electricity for end users by close to 10 per cent as of October
1 does not cover old costs such as those for the abandoned
Belene N-plant construction project and the Tsankov Kamak
hydropower project, Deputy Prime Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva
said Friday. She was speaking at a conference on sustainable
construction in Sofia.

"Let me underscore that by no means should people be made to pay
for expensive projects including Benele and Tsankov Kamak, for
which the National Electricity Company (NEK) has had costs," she
said.

The Deputy Prime Minister explained that the electricity price
hike only fractionally reduces the gap between the price that
NEK is required to pay electricity producers and the price that
the energy regulator has set for consumers. "It does not include
old liabilities that have built up due to inefficient
management of the system."

Zaharieva also argued that the "price increase" concept does not
really describe the situation "because what we have is
restoring the normal prices for electricity after they have been
artificially lowered due to political pressure on the
regulator". LY/LN/


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