Varna TPS, CEZ Employees to Hold Protest Rally in Sofia

About 300 employees of power distributor CEZ and the Varna Thermal Power Station (TPS) are to march in Bulgaria's capital Sofia on Thursday.

They are demanding that the state intervene to prevent a closedown of the power plant from January 1, 2015 and layoffs at CEZ Bulgaria, the Bulgarian branch of Czech-based electricity distributor CEZ.

CEZ Razpredelenie-Balgaria, which operates the plant, bears the obligation to invest into Varna TPS' modernization and upgrade in compliance with environmental requirements, but has not done so at the moment, citing cash shortage.

Failure to meet environmental norms could leave the plant closed as of January 1.

The demonstration was called by KT Podkrepa, one of Bulgaria's biggest trade unions.

Denko Roydev, who represents KT Podkrepa, told private national channel bTV on Thursday authorities are to blame for failing to oversee the privatization deal's implementation.

On Wednesday the Bulgarian Energy Holding (BEH) and CEZ vowed to find by end-October a viable solution keeping Varna TPS open.