13 days before the higher prices of electricity and heating come into effect, the Energy and Water Regulatory Commission justified the increase in prices to the deputies of the relevant committee in parliament. The Chairman of the Energy and Water Regulatory Commission Plamen Mladenovski explained the reasons for the expected increase in electricity prices from July 1 by about 3% for the entire country. According to him, the main reason is the higher price on the exchange. According to Plamen Mladenovski, the main reason is the higher price on the exchange.
„The main driver of the increase in prices is the inflationary processes that we are observing. It is due to the indexation of the operating costs of companies. I believe that the price increase we are proposing is well below inflation and is fully commensurate with the annual price increase that the regulator sets every year. As operating costs of energy companies, labor and materials are becoming more expensive. The reason for the specific price increase, however, is the higher price on the exchange”, explained Mladenovski, reports NOVA.
According to him, the increase in the price of electricity is not due to the increase in the price of network tariffs. They remain the same as last year. The increase, the relevant minister claims, is due to the smaller compensations from the Fund and the higher price reached on the exchange.
The head of the KEWR assured that the regulator will not approve the requested 30 percent increase in heating energy. “They ask for such a huge increase every year, but we always cut them to the level of inflation. I believe that the current 5% increase fully reflects the real situation”, stressed Mladenovski.
Southeastern Bulgaria is the most affected by the upcoming increase in the price of electricity. People there do not understand why they have to pay 100 euro bills in the winter without a visible change in the quality of the service. “An option should be found, because we, the pensioners, are the most affected group. Now the last bill was also very high. January, February, March - very high. One was 96 euros and something, 97 euros, and I am alone”, complains Penka Shtirkova.
According to Petar Dragolov, the problem is not in the price increase, but in the fact that nothing changes in the quality of the supply and this leads to a bad feeling among the consumer. “I have one-two-three-four electricity meters in five different parts of Bulgaria and it's the same everywhere - low quality”, he shares.
In Western Bulgaria the increase is not much less. But there are people like Kamen Avramov, for whom the increase is not so shocking nor will it particularly affect his small business. “It doesn't feel like it's much more - about 300 euros on average per year. There are months more, there are months less. It's not fatal. 3% is a small amount. We Bulgarians are used to complaining more, by making two seas - one in Bulgaria and one in Greece - we will cover these costs”, he jokes.
Things are not like that for Miroslav Ignatov from Ruse. He fears that the increase in electricity will bring his business to its knees. “We use between 5 and 15 kilowatt hours, which is not a small amount for a small business. The price is floating. Every month they vary by 30-50%, which makes it impossible for us to plan our business. We constantly have to change prices and we have big problems with this. We will bear the entire burden of this increase, because it is almost impossible to increase the prices of our products”, says the manufacturer.