Bulgarian state-owned electricity company NEK will raise electricity prices for
industrial consumers by 15.6% to 0.17271 levs ($0.1165/0.0883 euro) per kilowatt
hour (kWh) as of September 1, the company said.
As of August 1 NEK has
been charging industrial consumers 0.14935 levs per KWh.
Earlier on
Wednesday, the Bulgarian energy ministry said NEK’s liabilities currently stand
at 3.0 billion levs, as the company is expected to accumulate a further 1.0
billion levs in debt over the next year.
A day earlier, the ministry said
NEK paid 1.29 billion levs to power producers during the first seven months of
the year, its outstanding payments to power producers amounting to 1.13 billion
levs at the end of July.
Earlier this month NEK said in a financial
report it turned to a net loss of 249.2 million levs for the first half of the
year from a profit of 17.2 million levs a year earlier due to higher costs. Its
revenues went down by 3.3% to over 1.46 billion levs in January-June as
electricity sales revenues declined by 3.4% to 1.4 billion levs. The company
attributed its deteriorating performance to a 55% rise in the average price at
which it buys electricity due to the increasing share of expensive renewable
energy in the mix at the expense of cheaper power from Kozloduy NPP and
coal-fired Maritsa East 2.
NEK is 100%-owned by state-owned Bulgarian
Energy Holding.