Electricity Savings

TURKEY is willing to start importing Bulgarian electricity again, it emerged recently.

Under an agreement signed in 1998 between the Bulgarian and the Turkish governments, Bulgaria has been exporting electricity to Turkey.

For its part, Bulgaria has taken on the obligation to allow Turkish companies to participate in infrastructure projects between the two countries, such as the Maritsa highway and the Upper Arda hydropower project.

In April 2003, however, Turkey ceased to import Bulgarian electricity with the explanation that Bulgaria did not recruit Turkish companies in the carrying out of these construction projects.

In a series of negotiations in June, the two sides agreed to resume discussions on the matter within three months.

In a letter to his Bulgarian counterpart Milko Kovachev, Turkish minister of energy Hilmi Guler said that Turkey was willing to start negotiations on importing Bulgarian electricity.

According to Kovachev, Guler and the Turkish energy company Teas had expressed their willingness to renounce the agreement on the participation of Turkish companies in infrastructure projects.

Kovachev said that the letter raised two options, that such projects could go ahead with or without Turkish investment.

According to the Ministry of Energy, in spite the fact that the energy system was working at full capacity and that Bulgaria was exporting large amounts of electricity to several neighbouring countries, it was still possible that exports to Turkey also could go ahead.

Kovachev said that he had prepared a letter to Guler inviting him to Sofia for resume negotiations.

The most recent talks on the matter were held in Ankara in early June. At the time, Kovachev and the Minister of Regional Development and Public Works Valentin Tserovski could not reach an agreement with the Turkish side.

Meanwhile it emerged that the prices of electricity for domestic needs might rise by less than the expected 10 per cent.

According to the chairperson of the State Commission for Energy Regulation (SCER) Konstantin Shushulov, the new Energy Bill provides for new regulations for calculating electricity prices, which will be done by the end of October. These regulations should be approved by the Government at its meeting on December 18, according to Shushulov.

He said that the SCER would propose changes to the formula for calculating electricity prices.

According to Shushulov, currently the prices are drawn up on the basis of the expenses and the profits of the producers of energy, while the new principle would be based on the upper threshold of incomes.

Sofio Echo.com