The only district heating company in Bulgaria with such huge obligations is "Toplofikatsiya Sofia", which owes billions. The other companies probably owe a total of about 20 million euros. The difference is that "Toplofikatsiya Sofia" is municipal, and the others are private and have done their modernization years ago and continue to build on it. This was stated in the program "ReVizia" on NOVA NEWS by the chairman of the district heating companies association, Kremen Georgiev.
"In other district heating companies, there are much fewer problems. It is a matter of scale and labor. The others simply do not have such obligations, they do not have or almost do not have them. Yellow pennies compared to "Toplofikatsiya Sofia". All others probably owe 20 million euros in total, and Sofia - billions," he said.
The big difference lies in the ability of other district heating companies to offer a product other than heat. "They do something more - electricity. But for this to happen, they started preparations in 2004, 20 years ago. All of them are private, and only "Toplofikatsiya Sofia" is municipal. The Sofia district heating company has 61 heads - the Municipal Council, the Municipal Council. They are politicians," Georgiev pointed out.
It has long been known that Toplofikatsiya goes into debt at times when the price of natural gas is high, and it is obliged to sell at a low regulated price. But this problem, too, turns out, can be avoided. "The price of natural gas applies to everyone, but other district heating companies are above water because they sell electricity. And they are even modernizing at the moment. When you produce heat and electricity in a ratio of 1:1, you are not so bothered by the social price of heat, because the other product is an exchange product. In "Toplofikatsiya Sofia" this ratio is 5:1. 5 times heat and 1 time electricity. This is inefficient," said the expert.
Is "Toplofikatsiya Sofia" in "smoldering bankruptcy"?
Regarding the decision to increase the price of district heating products from the beginning of July, Georgiev explained that it was inevitable: "Nowadays, such an increase cannot be justified. There is simply inflation. District heating companies produce heat, use raw materials whose prices are increasing. We are talking about an increase of about 3-4%, in this range the price increase will be after the EWRC decides which costs of district heating companies will be recognized. The main weight in the price is the estimated price of natural gas and the estimated price of the so-called emissions that are paid. The totality of these two factors is 80% of the costs of district heating companies.
What is the state of "Toplofikatsiya Sofia"
The state of "Toplofikatsiya Sofia" and in general for district heating companies in the country are an important topic for discussion. However, the Sofia district heating company is the largest and this makes the conversation about it even more important. On the one hand, we are talking about the largest municipal company in Bulgaria and an infrastructure that provides heating and hot water to a huge part of the capital. On the other hand - for a company that has been accumulating debts for years, it needs large-scale investments and periodically becomes the subject of political disputes, audits and rescue plans. In recent months, the company has again come into the focus of public attention. The reason - large-scale repairs to the heat transfer network, the price of the service, the phenomenal amount of debts.
According to data discussed in the Sofia Municipal Council, the company's liabilities already exceed billions. At the same time, the network continues to require modernization, and the investments needed to reduce losses and increase efficiency are significant. This poses a difficult task for the management of the company and the Sofia Municipality - how to maintain a strategic service for the city when financial capabilities remain limited. That is why the conversation about "Toplofikatsiya Sofia" is not just a conversation about breakdowns, repairs or heating bills. This is a conversation about the management of public assets, the sustainability of a model inherited from the last century, and the cost of infrastructure that most people only notice when it stops working.