2024-07-26 17:12:29
- They extended compensation for high electricity bills and lowered the threshold
- There is money for the program, the energy minister assured
Businesses will receive compensation for high electricity prices until the end of the year, and the threshold has been reduced from BGN 200 per megawatt hour to BGN 180, so that the aid can be more substantial. This is what the MPs decided with the adopted draft decision with 185 “yes” votes from all parties.
The money for the compensations will come from the “Security of the Electricity System” fund. According to the chairman and Dian Chervenkondev, this would cost about BGN 230 million. Yesterday, Chervenkondev assured the deputies in the line committee that there are funds.
Chervenkondev gave an estimate that from July 1, revenues of BGN 160 million are expected in the fund, and the already available BGN 471 million can also be used for compensation.
Today, Energy Minister Vladimir Malinov confirmed that he has the financial resources to implement the program.
Until the end of June this year, compensations were given at a threshold above BGN 200 per megawatt hour, but the money was given only to hospitals, schools, kindergartens, community centers and temples. There was no help for the companies.
Before the vote in the parliament, the government extended until the end of the year the mechanism by which the so-called excess profits of the energy companies are confiscated. The electricity price ceiling at the Kozloduy NPP is BGN 150 per megawatt-hour, for coal-fired units it is BGN 300, plus the average monthly price per ton of emissions multiplied by 1.32. For producers using coal and biomass it is BGN 300, plus the average monthly price per ton of allowances multiplied by 0.9. For RES without a contract for compensation with premiums – also BGN 300. The money above these quotations goes to the “Security of the electricity system” fund. This measure proved to be a sustainable solution that balances interests of producers and the need to accumulate financial resources in the compensation fund, the government states.
The ceiling on the revenues of the power plants was introduced by the cabinet of Nikolay Denkov in March 2023 with retroactive effect – from January 1 of the same year and would have been until the half-year, but it lasted much longer.
During the debates, “Continuing the Change” proposed to create a compensation mechanism for household consumers in a situation of energy poverty, but their proposal was not accepted.