Bulgaria’s Electricity System Operator (ESO) suffered 27 million levs ($17.1 million/13.8 million euro) losses for the first four months of 2012 mainly due to reduced electricity exports.
Bulgariahas halted exports twice since the beginning of the year – once from January 21 till 28 to prevent power shortages following a week-long miners’ strike which affected coal supplies to the four local thermal power plants, and also in the period between February 10-20, amid a supply crunch caused by cold weather.
The other factor which caused the decreased revenue is the 50% annual reduction in Bulgarian power exports to Greece, state-run Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) said on Friday citing information from ESO’s chief executive officer Ivan Yotov.
Additionally, all hydropower plants in the Balkan region are working at full speed, which also leads to reduction of Bulgarian exports.
Yotov said he does not expect a record volume of exports this year by contrast with 2011 and pointed out the increased export fees from 11.7 euro ($14.5) per megawatt hour (MWh) to 15.7 euro/MWh as one of the reasons for this.