Renewable-energy law

Bulgaria ranks among eleven EU member states suffering from deficits in power tariffs, the European Commission believes.

In a report issued last week, the EU's executive body recommends that electricity prices be hiked to address flaws in financing of power system.

KLADOVO - The Djerdap 1 hydropower plant near Kladovo, eastern Serbia, produced 557 million kWh of electricity in September, which is a record figure in terms of electricity production in the 42 years' long history of the plant.

The production plan was exceeded by as many as 120 percent, since 557 million kWh have been produced instead of the planned 253 million kWh.

Around 1/5 of the electricity produced in Bulgaria is exported, according to data of the Electricity System Operator (ESO) for the first nine months of 2014.

The rate of electricity exports has increased by 84% from the same period of 2013.

By September 7, electricity production in Bulgaria amounted to 31,222 billion KWh, including exports of 5.9 billion KWh.

Greece's dominant power utility PPC reported a bigger-than-expected drop in first-half net profit, weighed down by increased provisions for overdue bills and tariff cuts.

Bulgaria will launch talks with green energy producers and power stations Maritsa Iztok 1 and 3 to draft a new model for setting electricity prices, a cabinet minister has said.

According to caretaker Economy and Energy Minister Vasil Shtonov, the new pricing model should benefit both the state and the energy companies.

The abolition of a series of subsidies on electricity rates, as the bailout agreement between Athens and its creditors dictates, will mean that as of July 1 homes consuming up to 800 kilowatt/hours per four-month period will see their power bill increase.

Renewable energy producers have threatened to sue Bulgaria's energy watchdog due to its intentions to impose a dramatic reduction in preferential tariffs.

The decrease in the preferential tariff for wind farms is by 20-22% and for photovoltaic plants by over 50%, according to reports of the Bulgarian National Radio (BNR).

Bulgaria's three mobile operators introduce lower mobile phone calls tariffs as of Monday, 14 April.

So far, phone calls were charged every 60 seconds, meaning that each call longer than 61 seconds was charged at the cost of two minutes.

Bulgaria's Parliament adopted incentives for small and rooftop power plants with a capacity of up to 30 KW.

Bulgarian MPs lifted the regulatory regime requiring the registration of people conducting installation and maintenance activities for power plants with a capacity of up to 200 KW, according to reports of dnevnik.bg.