site.btaExpert Blames Power Outages on Underinvestment

More and better targeted investments are needed to ensure trouble-free water supply, heat supply and electricity supply. This implies higher prices, and if households cannot afford them, the social system should intervene, Kaloyan Staykov, Chair of the Management Board of the non-governmental Energy Management Institute (EMI), writes on Facebook. 

Another issue is the lack of differentiation between outages affecting high-voltage or medium/low-voltage networks, the expert adds.

Of the price that non-household users connected to medium-voltage networks will pay in December for electricity and network services (excluding VAT, excise duty and subsidies), less than 1% (BGN 2.77 per day) for 100 kW power and some 4.5% (BGN 13.85 per day) for 500 kW power will go for maintenance of the distribution network, Staykov calculates.

The proportion is even lower for household customers: between 3.4% (BGN 7.50/MW) and 4.3% (BGN 9.80/MW), which means between BGN 2.70 and BGN 3.42 monthly per household.

The expert suggests that the balance between the interests of users and electricity companies selling power at regulated prices should be redressed because low prices do not benefit either party.