Bulgaria’s privatization agency has extended by another two months a deadline for finalizing a EUR105.2 million power plant sale to Greece’s Public Power Corp, it said on Monday, according to Reuters.
The sell-off agency has already delayed the deal for the acquisition of the 630-megawatt coal-fired Bobov Dol power plant in September over environmental and coal-purchase concerns.
“The new extention is due to a lack of progress in talks,” said Veneta Natcheva, spokeswoman for the privatization agency. The new deadline is in the middle of February. The Greek investor has argued the plant’s quota for carbon-dioxide emissions will not allowed it to use local coal, as Bulgarian miners’ unions insist.
The plant is situated near the Bobov Dol Mines in western Bulgaria, where 2,700 miners have protested against potential heavy layoffs if PPC is not obliged to buy their output. The privatization agency has said it would oblige PPC to buy local coal for at least five years.