NEK demands a 15% hike of electricity prices as of July

The National Electricity Company (NEK) will demand no less than a 15% increase of its electricity prices as of July, the new Director of the Bulgarian Energy Holding (BEH), Mihail Andonov, said today on BNR. Before being appointed to his current position at the end of last week, he was managing NEK, which is within the structure of BEH. Then, as Klassa daily wrote, Andonov was of the opinion that NEK would ask the State Energy and Water Regulatory Commission (SEWRC) to raise electricity prices by 8.5% during the next regulatory period.

One of NEK's arguments for demanding a 15% price hike for the electricity it sells to distribution companies is that SEWRC has already increased three times the preferential prices of the electricity, generated by heating utilities, which NEK has to buy. Thus, the company gets less proceeds from the sale of its energy but has to pay more to the power plants.

"We hope that SEWRC will take into conisderation NEK's negative cash flows," said Andonov. According to him, with such a price NEK will be able to make up for the delay of its payments. "The company has current liabilities to its clients," said BEH's Head, but did not specify the amount. If SEWRC approves the requested price hike of electricity, this will affect the increase demanded by the power distribution companies.

The power utilities EVN, CEZ and E.ON have already submitted their proposals for a change of their tariffs by 3.6%, 6.44% and 9.1%, respectively. Their calculations, however, were based on the current prices of NEK and the power plants. After it became clear that NEK would demand a 15% price increase, the Head of SEWRC, Angel Semerdjiev, admitted that the prices of the power plants would also go up because they have to buy air pollution allowances - the so-called greenhouse gas quotas. Semerdjiev's latest forecasts were that the final increase in the price of electricity for households would not exceed 10%.
 

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