[size=55:263ybmua]novinite 25 February 2010

Bulgaria Power Utilities Demand Electricity Price Hike

Each of Bulgarias three electricity distribution companies has demanded hikes of electricity prices.

This has been announced Thursday by Angel Semerdzhiev, head of Bulgarias State Commission for Energy and Water Regulation (DKEVR).

The Czech-owned company CEZ running the electricity distribution in Western Bulgaria wants a 9% increase of electricity prices;
the Austrian-owned utility in South-eastern Bulgaria, EVN, demands a hike of 2-3%;
and the German-owned E.ON based in North-eastern Bulgaria has asked for a price increase of 5-10%.

Semerdzhiev has pointed out that each of the power utilities had different arguments supporting its demands. He said the DKEVR was likely to approve an electricity price increase of 4-5%.

Starting July 1, 2010, electricity bills in Bulgaria will depend on the quality of the provided electricity so that clients with regular problems in that respect would be entitled to reductions of the amounts they pay.

"
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Starting July 1, 2010, electricity bills in Bulgaria will depend on the quality of the provided electricity so that clients with regular problems in that respect would be entitled to reductions of the amounts they pay. !!


love it .....for the regular problems and amount of electricity coming into our most days...they should be paying me then .....

Hi varna girl that sfab news lets see if it actually happens though!!!!

well i pity the bulgarians,as most struggle from week to week now,should imagine they will go back to the old days of using candlelight,bet they dont get an increase in there wages-pensions,sorry, off topic,

[size=85:9qo53q0w]Focus news 11 June 2010

Increase in electricity and natural gas price will lead to an increase in all goods

FOCUS: Mrs Kukusheva, what kind of an effect will the possible rise in the price of electricity have on the price of bread?
Mariana Kukusheva: The increase in the price of electricity and natural gas will lead to an increase in the price of all goods and commodities, as they are manufacture expenditures. This increase may reflect on the manufacturers to a different extent but this proposition has not yet been approved. The moment that the increase in electricity becomes clear, we will start calculating the manufacture cost. We must also take into account that this increase will lead to an increase in the price of raw materials, thus creating a chain reaction.

FOCUS: What will be the increase in the price of bread?
Mariana Kukusheva: The easiest way to explain it is to think that the increase of bread would equal the increase of electricity in percentages. However this is impossible. The increase will have an effect first on the raw materials, then on the manufacturing and then on the market so there will probably be a percentage of deficit on the actual price. Furthermore the increase in electricity of more than 20 per cent would certainly mean an increase of VAT as well, considering that electricity, as any other product on the market, has VAT. Thus with an increase of the initial price we have a higher VAT, which is calculated from the new increased price and then added to it. It all looks really scary and it is still early for price predictions.

FOCUS: How did the economic crisis affect the branch?
Mariana Kukusheva: Severely. But I highly doubt that it has that kind of an effect on our branch alone. On one hand it’s the economic crisis and on the other hand it’s the decrease of consumption. To repeat myself, when a household has paid all its main bills, the budget is tightly squeezed when it comes to food, as food is the only place, from where a family can save some money.

FOCUS: Yes, but isn’t bread one of those product one can not go without?
Mariana Kukusheva: Bread consumption has reached a low, and for the past five months alone has decreased by 30 per cent. This, however, goes both ways. On one hand maybe bread doesn’t get thrown away anymore which, I think, is the case. On the other hand maybe it has something to do with the new tendency to exclude bread from the food chain. Some dieticians, not only Bulgarian but also worldwide consider bread to be a main reason for the increase of body weight. As you know there is not one that eats mainly bread and changes his or her body weight. Bread is an essential good and the decrease in consumption is either due to the increase in the dieticians’ tendency or due to the fact that other pasties, like pizzas, sandwiches and ready-made products shift bread away from the manner of the Bulgarian. The tendency of buying bread every day has long been forgotten. Nowadays the only people that buy bread every day are the elderly and they are not the main consumption part of the population as they have very limited budgets.

FOCUS: And what is the tendency today?
Mariana Kukusheva: A lot of firms have shrunk their work to the minimum. But there is a new tendency that is currently arising – the making of specialized types of bread such as special white and brown bread and even bread with fibers. But this doesn’t mean that only brown bread is healthy. Brown bread is mainly made for diabetics and is more dietary, but there are also white types of bread that are enriched with fibers and are healthy.

FOCUS: What are the types of bread that sell best?
Mariana Kukusheva: It’s hard to make a statistic on it, but according to us, bread made out of wheat and rye wholemeal bread are the ones that are sold best.

FOCUS: Is the decrease in bread consumption a worldwide phenomenon?
Mariana Kukusheva: On the whore this is global tendency as there is mass advertising of Chinese food, which excludes bread and uses rise as a substitute. But the Bulgarian doesn’t forget bread and bread will not disappear from the Bulgarian household.

Prices seem to be creeping up now in BG, if not careful will soon be like UK

Oddy

I think its swings and roundabouts, not much in it either way, in the uk the utilty bills and community charges, telephone, internet, taxes, are all higher than bulgaria, but bulgaria is dear in things like food ( unless you go bulgarian), building materials, fully comprehensive car insurance which is extortionate, VAT, as for electric, never worked that one out yet, my bills have ranged from 1,000 levs to 59 levs, and dont forget the double bill at christmas :Very sad:even if your not there. despite putting in a written complaint, i was told the fault lay at point of entry to my home which was my responsibility, yeah right, bulgaria is not cheap, the holiday resorts are way overpriced now and airfares not competative. housing is still a lot cheaper than the uk whether new or renovated, no question of that, but cost of living i dont think there is much difference, unless you live the ways of the ageing bulgaria, which to be honest is damned hard, they only do it through no choice. bulgaria is changing and adopting the western style so nothing will be cheap soon.

[size=85:xzzyfckh]novinite 01 July 2010

Bulgarians Suffer Natural Gas Price Hike of 25%

The price of natural gas sold in Bulgaria goes up by 24.63% as of July 1 following a decision to this effect by the state energy watchdog from earlier this week.

The hike brings the price for 1000 cubic meters of gas up to BGN 542.50.

It is feared that the increase will hit hard at households and industries. A large part of household in Bulgaria heating is gas-dependent and its new price will be up by an average of 12%.

The highest raise is for the capital Sofia with a staggering 18.6%. A hike of 15.92% is announced for Vratza, 15.92% for Varna and 13.30 % for Plovdiv. Varna and Plovdiv are Bulgaria's second- and third-biggest cities.

The price of electricity is also tied to that of gas and it will go up by around 2%.

The increase in the price of electricity is different for different power distribution companies. For customers of CEZ, which services Western Bulgaria, it will be 1.88%;
for E.ON customers (North-Eastern Bulgaria);
for EVN customers (South-East Bulgaria) - 1.39%.

A total of 95% of Bulgaria's natural gas supply comes from Russia. There are speculations about the contracts being unfavorable for Bulgaria, yet their terms are kept secret.

Speculation is also rife about mismanagement on the part of Bulgargaz, which is the main provider of gas for industrial use in Bulgaria.

Bulgarian state gas company Bulgargaz had requested a minimal price hike of 29%, claiming that any raise below that number would prove disastrous for it.

The head of the Energy Regulation Commission Angel Semerdzhiev characterized the announced hike as "
balanced"
.

[size=55:2tski43w]novinite 09 July 2010

Price of Natural Gas in Bulgaria Might Drop by 15%

The price of natural gas in Bulgaria might drop by 15% in September, the Energy Regulation Commission announced Friday.

The head of the Commission, Angel Semerdzhiev, said if the negotiations between Bulgaria and the Russian “Gazprom” go well, the price of natural gas might drop even before the heating season begins.

“There is a possibility of a drop in the prices. However, we have to wait for the result of the negotiations and the situation on the market in September. But a minimum drop by 15% of the price of natural gas is possible to be negotiated so that there is a balance in the interests of “Gazprom” as a provider and our interests as well,” Semerdzheiv said.

The position of the head of the Energy Regulation Commission on the intermediaries in the purchase of natural gas from Russia is that there should be an explanation what their purpose is.

“Gazprom” should explain why does it need intermediaries. We need to know exactly what their role is,” he said.

Last week Bulgaria's Energy Minister Traicho Traikov, demanded an elimination of the intermediaries with the reason that negotiations with Russia should be direct.

His statement came in the wake of a high-ranking meeting between Russian first deputy Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov and Bulgarian PM Boyko Borisov in Sofia, when Zubkov expressed his astonishment at high gas prices in Bulgaria and vowed to ensure lower sale prices of Russian gas in the nearest future.

As a result of Zubkov's statement, Traikov announced that the Energy Regulation Commission will analyze the natural gas prices of the gas distribution companies in Bulgaria “Obezgaz” and “BSTC” (Black Sea Technology Company). Energy experts will make audits in order to show whether the gas prices have been increased.

According to Semerdzhiev, however, the price of natural gas in Bulgaria is one of the lowest in Europe. In his words, 70% of the final price for customers is formed at wholesale supplying by the three intermediaries at Bulgaria's border, “Overgaz INC”, “Vintershal” and “Gazprom export”, which are controlled by “Gazprom”.

Semerdzhiev said that the rest 30% go for gas distribution and gas supply companies.

[size=55:i5ih9nic]Sofia echo

Electricity bills will rise in summer - Bulgarian energy watchdog

Bulgarians are likely to be paying steeper prices for electricity starting in summer 2011 because expenses incurred by the country's three power utilities have risen due to the cost of energy generated from renewable energy sources, Bulgarian Dnevnik daily reported on February 8 2011.

The rise in prices is expected to come on July 1, according to Angel Semerdzhiev, head of the Bulgarian State Energy and Water Regulatory Commission (SEWRC)

According to the report, Bulgarians should expect the price of electricity to increase by 1.5 per cent, although the power utilities are yet to submit their respective price requests. Final calculative adjustments – with the rate of inflation added on – could mean that prices go up by about four or five per cent.

"
Many plants have been commissioned and are in operation, producing wind-generated electricity. And because of that, the price of energy will go up,"
Semerdzhiev said.

[size=55:3jpticyb]novinite

Western Bulgaria Faces 13% Electricity Price Hike

The Czech-owned power utility CEZ, providing electric power to western Bulgaria, is requesting a 13% price increase after July 1, 2011.

The request must be approved by the State Commission for Energy and Water Regulation, DKEVR. The approval would mean that the electric bill of a household in western Bulgaria will go up by BGN 5.5 a month on average

CEZ say the price increase takes into account real expenses, inflation, investments, market liberalization and energy effectiveness and is based on the price structure approved by DKEVR. The price is also formed on the principles of equality of all customers.

Since the beginning of the current regulatory period, DKEVR had estimated CEZ annual investments at BGN 35 per customer while in south-eastern and north eastern Bulgaria, where the other two utilities operate, they are BGN 75 and BGN 65 respectively. CEZ say this unbalance is unacceptable because the company services the most customers – over 2 million and has the longest network of over 60 000 km.

40% of the population of the country lives in western Bulgaria where the capital Sofia is located, in addition to part of Bulgaria's top winter resorts, all forming a significant percentage of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), CEZ point out.

The company explains the price increase is a must in order to generate the needed revenues of BGN 437 M, and optimization of customer service and prevention of theft will also be considered as reserve.

In the last year, theft has inflicted losses for CEZ of over BGN 17 M.

The CEZ proposal takes into consideration the need to solve the problem with the purchase of facilities built by third parties ASAP. The amount needed for it was BGN 120 M at the end of 2010.

The company also points out that 84% of all cables date from 30 years ago with a warranty period of 25. 41% of the air power lines are over 30 years old with a warranty period of 30 years.

Admin wrote:

[size=55:3phwzsgd]novinite

Western Bulgaria Faces 13% Electricity Price Hike

The Czech-owned power utility CEZ, providing electric power to western Bulgaria, is requesting a 13% price increase after July 1, 2011.

The request must be approved by the State Commission for Energy and Water Regulation, DKEVR. The approval would mean that the electric bill of a household in western Bulgaria will go up by BGN 5.5 a month on average

CEZ say the price increase takes into account real expenses, inflation, investments, market liberalization and energy effectiveness and is based on the price structure approved by DKEVR. The price is also formed on the principles of equality of all customers.

Since the beginning of the current regulatory period, DKEVR had estimated CEZ annual investments at BGN 35 per customer while in south-eastern and north eastern Bulgaria, where the other two utilities operate, they are BGN 75 and BGN 65 respectively. CEZ say this unbalance is unacceptable because the company services the most customers – over 2 million and has the longest network of over 60 000 km.

40% of the population of the country lives in western Bulgaria where the capital Sofia is located, in addition to part of Bulgaria's top winter resorts, all forming a significant percentage of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), CEZ point out.

The company explains the price increase is a must in order to generate the needed revenues of BGN 437 M, and optimization of customer service and prevention of theft will also be considered as reserve.

In the last year, theft has inflicted losses for CEZ of over BGN 17 M.

The CEZ proposal takes into consideration the need to solve the problem with the purchase of facilities built by third parties ASAP. The amount needed for it was BGN 120 M at the end of 2010.

The company also points out that 84% of all cables date from 30 years ago with a warranty period of 25. 41% of the air power lines are over 30 years old with a warranty period of 30 years.

I stand to be corrected on this, but I believe plus 13% would take them over UK average prices? ::

Just paid ours for the xmas period 170 lev so i suppose not too bad

Mike

[size=55:b34bwjpn]Sofia echo

Going haywire


It is open season on Bulgarian electricity distribution companies and once again it was ultra-nationalist Ataka leader Volen Siderov that marked the occasion with his usual flair. "
CEZ is Czech and is siphoning out enormous sums from Bulgaria. Director Rossen Yordanov is a janissary,"
he said.

Siderov accused Yordanov, once an MP candidate for centre-right Union of Democratic Forces (UDF), of financing the party, an accusation rejected by UDF leader Martin Dimitrov, who called Siderov a liar. Several hours later, CEZ said in a statement that it could not be implicated in political arguments. Several hours later, Yordanov was no longer the head of the maintenance division at CEZ, with the company saying that it was a case of mutual termination and that the timing was coincidental.

Every year, at the end of February, the distribution companies submit their business plans to the State Energy and Water Regulatory Commission (SEWRC), which outline the companies' planned spending for the coming year. Usually, the proposals are double the size from the previous year and always come with a request to increase end-user prices.

The script is set in stone by now: Ataka and the right-wing Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation party call protest rallies and threaten to take the matter into their own hands (last year's wrinkle was Prime Minister Boiko Borissov threatening to nationalise the three companies), followed by SEWRC trying to calm the waters by saying that it would never allow a drastic increase in prices. By mid-summer, the electricity distribution companies' bills are cut in half, while state-owned power utility NEK somehow avoids similar treatment.

On the edge

This year, NEK's request was fairly moderate, asking for only a five per cent increase. The private distribution companies' requests, however, will have increased prices for customers by between five and 17 per cent. According to calculations by CEZ, the monthly bill of the average consumer who uses 200 kWh would have to increase by 5.40 leva.

The important part is that the requests are double the amounts demanded in 2010. "
SEWRC's decision, now in effect, has led to a drastic decrease in our ratio in the production-transmission-distribution cycle, which is significantly limiting the investment in the distribution segment,"
said EVN, the Austrian company whose subsidiary services southern and south-eastern Bulgaria.

In 2008, from every 100 leva paid by the consumers, the company received 17 leva. In 2010, that amount was down to 13 leva. With such a drastic decline in turnover and revenue, the company said that it took a 50 million leva loan to carry out investment. "
This cannot be a stable solution,"
the company said.

Germany's E.ON, which services northern and north-eastern Bulgaria, plans to inject cash in its Bulgarian subsidiary through a capital hike.

Neither solution is a good one for the state and consumers. In the first case, the extra costs of EVN's loan will have to be serviced by consumers in the future. In the second case, the state stands to lose future revenue because the equity injection would severely dilute the state's 33 per cent stake in E.ON Bulgaria.

All of this is because of SEWRC's continued policy to help state firms at the expense of the private ones. Over the past three yeras, the regulator has cut the distribution companies' planned revenues by an average of 17 per cent, while NEK and its subsidiary ESO, which operates the power grid, have been approved increases ranging from 12 per cent to 56 per cent.

In 2010 alone, E.ON lost 21 million leva because the NEK and producer prices went up by 8.4 per cent, while the end-user price went up by only 1.9 per cent, pushing E.ON into making a loss.
SEWRC finds itself with the difficult task of balancing the electricity cycle, without the tools to control the management of the state companies, able to only state the facts after the deed is done. Like the fact that NEK has been under-investing in grid maintenance.

Even should the state companies be fined, the effects are negligible, because it would be once again consumers that have to pay for it. Not so with the more efficient private companies, which are much more sensitive to regulator sanctions.

Take or pay

This year's proposals come with a new twist, with EVN offering to change the way in which the cost of grid access is calculated. Now, corporate consumers pay based on the amount they use, but the power distribution company suggested that payment is based on amounts that the companies will declare in advance. The goal is to teach industrial consumers to plan their usage in order to optimise network efficiency.

The proposal sounds modern and, the company said, was entirely in line with the spirit of the forthcoming full liberalisation of the market for business customers. The problem is that it would only penalise those companies that use less electricity than they declare in advance, paying a fee for the difference between the amounts declared and used.

At the same time, the companies that declare lower usage, in part to save on grid connection costs, would not be affected. Yet it was these companies that caused the black-outs on the Black Sea coast in the summer of 2010. Many seaside hotels understate the amount of electricity they really need, literally causing EVN to blow a fuse.

The next episode in the annual saga, the one in which the private distribution companies are being accused of all possible sins, will go on for at least two weeks. SEWRC could use that time to think how to synchronise the submission of business plans when the next financial year rolls around, so as to avoid the pointless attacks against some of the companies in the energy sector.

[size=55:84fn63p5]novinite

Electricity Prices in Bulgaria to Add 10% from July

Angel Semerdzhiev, Chair of the State Commission for Energy and Water Regulation (DKEVR), has confirmed that electricity prices will not increase by more than 10% from July 1.

The DKEVR Chair told journalists Tuesday that power tariffs would not be affected by the loan that the national power grid operator NEK would take from the Bulgarian Energy Holding (BEH) to repay the loan for the scrapped Belene NPP project.

On Monday, Energy Minister Delyan Dobrev announced that the term for the settlement of the EUR 250 M debt on Belene NPP would be extended by a year, with NEK scheduled to pay back some of the money after taking a loan of EUR 50-70 M from BEH.

Dobrev noted that it was more likely that the loan would amount to EUR 50 M because NEK had some free financial resources.

In his Tuesday interview, Semerdzhiev argued that power tariffs were acceptable both for household consumers and for industrial customers because consumption in Bulgaria had been growing over the past few years regardless of the crisis.

The Chair of the energy watchdog assured that the 12% increase in water prices demanded by water utility Sofiyska Voda would not be implemented.