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From Bulgaria
08.04.2015 17:43
© Bulgarian Ministry of Energy
The Bulgarian state-run National Electricity Company (NEK) signed today two agreements with AES Galabovo TPP and ContourGlobal Maritsa East 3 TPP. The deal stipulates that the two power plants would see their availability price lowered, in return of some EUR 350 m (BGN 700 m) debt payment by NEK.
Energy Minister Ms. Temenuzhka Petkova stated that the availability price of CountourGlobal Maritsa East 3 will be decreased by 17%, while AES Galabovo’s price would be cut by 14%. The current availability price, according to data of the Bulgarian energy watchdog, is BGN 70.88/MWh for of CountourGlobal Maritsa East 3 and BGN 90.35/MWh for AES Galabovo, respectively.
Minister Petkova estimated that NEK would realise savings of BGN 1 bn (EUR 500 m) by the end of the two power plants' contracts in 2024 and 2027, after the measure is implemented.
Bulgaria’s PM Boyko Borissov thanked the U.S. partners from both power plants for the constructive dialogue during the negotiation, which enabled this inaugural step towards stabilising the country’s energy sector.
“The hegotiations were tough, but we reached an agreement because we believe the government has the decisiveness to stabilise the energy sector”, Julian Nebreda, AES EMEA president stated.
“With this deal our partnership continues.We reached a good compromise and we are convinced that the government will continue the reforms in the sector”, Garry Levesley, CEO of ContourGlobal Maritsa Eats 3 said.
The state energy company, which plays the role of a single buyer for the country’s regulated power market, has been struggling to pay energy producers. NEK has accumulated a deficit of more than BGN 3 bn due to the obligatory buying of all renewable energy at higher feed-in tariffs, the need to keep. The re-negotiation of PPAs with the two coal-fired power plants has been discussed as a means to stabilise NEK. As a consequence to the delayed payments, Maritsa East Mines which supply the two power plants, have also been suffering.
As of recently, the re-introduction of the green energy levy to power export prices has also been brought up. This addition to prices has been removed in 2013 in order to restore the almost non-existent, at the time, power exports.
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