01 novembre 2007
Bulgaria exports electricity to neighbor countries during the night
The National electricity company of Bulgaria NEC could utilize the lower night consumption of energy in the country for not to stop the exportation of the electicity in the region.
During the night Bulgaria consumes 30% less electricity which could have significant economical value, said the chairman of the Central Dispatcher Governance at NEC Mitjo Hristozov, cited by Draik radio.
To this time there aren't any orders from the neighbor countries for night current delivery. That means Bulgarian electricity exports depend entirely on the water reserves in the dam lakes.
By good coincidence and rainfall in Bulgaria during the year the expected exports are about 20% of the electricity exports in 2006.
If Bulgaria does not export electricity, it would cost the national budget € 20 millions monthly.
http://international.ibox.bg/news/id_1525626311
Nuclear Ambitions Fan Controversy in Bulgaria
Views and Records
By Matthew Brunwasser
International Herald Tribune
As governments around the world struggle to secure energy supplies, cut carbon emissions and adapt to rising oil prices, Bulgaria has adopted an ambitious solution: Construct a new nuclear power plant, the country's second, near the northern town of Belene, across the Danube from Romania.
Critics say the project is economically flawed, open to corruption and mismanagement, and will cement Russian dominance of Bulgaria's energy sector while putting Bulgarian taxpayers at risk of footing the bill. The government says global energy pressures make the project necessary.
At a cost that is likely to exceed the contracted �4 billion, or $5.8 billion - already 16 percent of Bulgaria's gross domestic product last year - the nuclear plant at Belene is the most expensive public works project in the country's post-Communist history.
Construction was actually started in the Communist era, in 1981, but the project was cancelled in 1990, before reactors were installed but after some $1 billion had been spent, as Bulgaria struggled with an economic crisis.
In 2003, the government of the then prime minister and former exiled king, Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, announced the resurrection of the Belene project.
NEK, the state-owned national electricity company, will hold a 51 percent stake in the plant. Bids for the remaining 49 percent stake were taken until Oct. 17 from five short-listed private investors: Enel, of Italy; E.ON and RWE, from Germany; the Czech power utility CEZ; and the Belgian power company Electrabel, owned by the French utility Suez.
Construction restarted this year with a �250 million loan from BNP Paribas. The project is awaiting a technical report by the European Commission before applying for an additional �350 million loan from Euratom to finance the second stage of construction. If the loan is approved, it would be the first time that Euratom financed the construction of new nuclear capacity rather than expanding existing facilities.
The government is pushing Belene to offset the loss of production that followed last year's closure of two reactors at the country's Kozloduy nuclear plant, in the northwest of the country. Bulgaria agreed to shut down the reactors for safety reasons as part of its entry into the European Union in 1999.
After the reactor closures, electricity exports were expected to end completely. But NEK announced this month that Bulgaria still planned to export 3.6 million megawatt-hours this year, down from 7.7 million in 2006.
In the past, Bulgaria covered 70 percent of the power import requirements of Greece, Romania, Serbia and Macedonia. Belene is seen as a carbon-free means to win back these markets.
The Bulgarian Prime Minister, Sergei Stanishev, told Parliament in January that Bulgaria's energy policy was "totally consistent with the priorities of the EU energy policy, to build competitive national, regional and European-wide markets while protecting the environment and ensuring safe energy supplies."
"Not having its own resources of natural gas, oil and high calorie coal, Bulgaria's choice of building the Belene nuclear power plant is first and foremost a choice in favor of energy independence from fossil fuel supplies, which come precisely from Russia," he said.
Independence from Russia energy supplies, however, is not self-evident at Belene. Bulgaria has awarded a contract to Atomstroyexport, in which the Russian gas giant Gazprom owns an 84 percent stake, to build the plant and install two 1,000 megawatt water-pressurized reactors. As a result, Belene will be the first Russian nuclear plant built in the European Union.
Russia already provides 100 percent of Bulgaria's natural gas, 89 percent of its imported crude oil - which is processed at the only Bulgarian oil refinery, owned by the Russian company Lukoil - and 36 percent of its hard coal imports. Russia also provides all the nuclear fuel for the Kozloduy power plant, and recycles all its spent fuel.
"All the economists have attacked Belene on the basis of price, state guarantees and independence," said Georgy Ganev, an economist at the Center for Liberal Strategies in Sofia. "You can't completely lock yourself into Russian technology and Russian-supplied fuel at a moment when you are capable of diversifying."
Critics say that money spent on Belene would be better used on less glamorous improvements of energy efficiency like insulating buildings. Bulgaria, according to 2004 figures from Eurostat, the European statistics office, is by far the most energy-inefficient state in Europe, using eight times more energy than the average amount used in the 27 EU member states to produce every �1 of gross domestic product.
Analysts have also attacked the lack of public debate and the inconsistency of government statements on the extent of state-backed financial guarantees, saying the opacity masks a determination to build the plant regardless of cost.
One vocal critic, Krassen Stanchev of the Institute for Market Economics in Sofia, has estimated the cost to the state at 2.1 percent of Bulgaria's annual GDP.
"Belene has no clear economic or technical rationale," said Ivan Ivanov, a member of Parliament from the opposition party, Democrats for a Strong Bulgaria, who sits on the parliamentary energy commission. "Electricity exports are not profitable when the state invests �4 billion in the construction of Belene. If it was profitable, the private sector would do it."
One possibility could be for NEK to offer a 15-year fixed-price electricity purchasing guarantee, said Djurica Tankosic, a senior vice-president at WorleyParsons, the architect and engineering contractor on the project. "We are looking at the optimal structure of the securitization of this project," Tankosic said.
Financial guarantees are currently the subject of negotiation with potential investors, but Tankosic said the state would not cover 100 percent of the investment risks.
One major unknown for the project is what the price of electricity will be in 2014, when Belene is expected to begin producing for the national electricity grid. Other countries are also building new capacity to feed the growing economies and energy needs of the region. In neighboring Romania, for example, the Cernavoda nuclear power plant started commercial operation of its second 700 megawatt reactor this month.
According to Standard and Poor's, the credit rating agency, "NEK's intention to participate as a majority owner in the Belene nuclear project could significantly increase the company's exposure to operating, regulatory, market, and environmental risk."
Some critics say that rather than meeting Bulgaria's economic needs, the project is a response to lobbying pressures from the country's several thousand nuclear professionals whose livelihood has been threatened by the progressive closure of Kozloduy. They also say that corruption has long been rampant in the arcane world of public procurement in energy, dominated by a handful of companies close to those in power.
Ognyan Minchev, director of the Institute for Regional and International Studies, in Sofia, charged that Russian interests had used direct cash payments to individuals to influence procurement decisions in similar projects. "Russian companies and Russian authorities have absolute freedom of what we might call 'informal personal influencing' of public officials in countries like Bulgaria," Minchev said, without citing specific examples.
Ganev, the economist, said that as much as one-third of the cost of Belene could be channeled into questionable payments.
One allegation of corruption surfaced this year when the city council of Svishtov, a town located 10 kilometers, or six miles, from Belene that opposes the project on environmental grounds, brought to the attention of prosecutors a $7.8 million contract for an environmental impact statement and feasibility study signed by NEK with Parsons E&C Europe, which has since been renamed WorleyParsons Europe.
Some Bulgarian nuclear engineers said that nearly the same work had already been carried out at the site by the state firm Energoproekt, for about $150,000.
Justifying the contract and its cost, Tankosic, who signed on behalf of Parsons, said the work involved was a "very in-depth review" by a large group of licensed companies. "The process was absolutely transparent and it was absolutely by the books when it comes to Bulgarian regulations," he said. Officials at NEK declined to comment.
Three months after receiving the complaint, the prosecutor's office has yet to determine in which jurisdiction it should be investigated. Bulgaria has long been criticized by the EU for a dilatory approach to corruption issues.
Deutsche Bank and UniCredit backed out of financing Belene in July, after Deutsche Bank cited environmental risks as well as the bank's commitment to social responsibility. German environmentalists say there is a danger of seismic activity in the region, and that the Russian reactor should not be licensed because it lacks a safety appraisal.
"According to our laws and solid political orientation, we are in the European Union and NATO," said Ivanov, the opposition member of Parliament. "But in the most important economic sector of the 21st century - energy - we are still in the sphere of Russia."
source : novinite.com
28 octobre 2007
No money to sell Bulgaria's Toplofikatsiya Sofia
After more than one year of negotiations between Sofia municipality and Parliament over the privatisation of Toplofikatsiya Sofia, the two institutions were stuck with the question of who would pick up the bill for the consultants, mediapool.bg reported.
On October 2, a mediapool.bg source at the municipality said that a consultant for the privatisation was not selected yet because there was no money to pay the consultant.
Around 1.5 million euro would be needed to pay a consultancy agency for advise to the municipality and the state on how to restructure and after that to sell its property, mediapool.bg said.
Theoretically, the consultants' bill could be paid from Toplofikatsiya's turnover, because the company is an independent entity, registered under Bulgaria's Trade Law. At the moment there is not enough money in the company to pay the consultant.
The question is very delicate, as mediapool.bg reports, with the local elections so nearby, paying a consultant out of money from clients would be politically a highly unpopular decision.
A proposal to pay the consultant out of the 15 million euro credit from the World Bank for changing part of the heating installation was blocked by Finance Minister Plamen Oresharski who refused to release the funds for any other use than what the credit was given for.
Municipality and ministry decided to follow the third possible procedure, mediapool.bg said, which was to announce a competition for a consultant with the condition that the consultant would pay for the analysis under the consultation. The fee would then simply be added to the price that the buyer would pay for Toplofikatsiya Sofia, was the reasoning.
Unless the consultant concludes after the analysis that a sales of Toplofikatsiya at this point is not necessary. Then the money would have to come out of turnover of the company.
According to recent data, Toplofikatsiya Sofia had a debt of 150 million leva to Bulgargaz.
http://www.expatinbulgaria.com/news/No-money-to-sell-Bulgaria's-Toplofikatsiya-Sofia/37/1660
23 octobre 2007
Demand for energy efficiency loans in Bulgaria
MKB Unionbank, DSK, United Bulgarian Bank (UBB), Raiffeisenbank Bulgaria, DZI and Postbank are some of the Bulgaria financial institutions offering energy efficency loans.
MKB Unionbank (MKBU) press officer Borislav Yordanov spoke to The Sofia Echo on the bank’s development in this field. Yordanov said that MKBU started offering energy efficiency loans in March 2004. That year, the bank concluded an agreement with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) for the amount of three million euro on this credit line.
“Those loans enjoyed big success and big demand for them was recorded, and the money was absorbed in a very short period,” Yordanov said.
In the summer of 2007, MKBU concluded a new contract within the programme for energy efficiency support, this time for five million euro. The bank has an agreement with EBRD to finance only private companies for energy efficiency and renewable energy production.
So far, within the first transaction of three million euro, MKBU financed nine projects for energy efficiency and two for renewable energy sources. In total, loans granted amounted to 1.92 million euro and 1.08 million euro, respectively.
Of the nine energy efficiency projects, three belonged to one and the same company. Yordanov said the credit term was mostly from three to five years.
The conditions that applicant companies have to meet include that the firm is registered and operate in Bulgaria, and that its activities do not include production, marketing or distribution of tobacco and alcohol products, gambling, guns and activities included in a special list of projects excluded by EBRD ecological policy. Borrowers’ activities also have to correspond to national ecological, health and labour protection norms.
“Our clients also receive full set of free of charge consultancy assistance, ensured by EBRD (...),” Yordanov said. EBRD also hires an independent energy expert to certify that the projects are fulfilled in accordance with the loan. Energy efficiency loans that have been approved by MKBU include reconstruction, modernisation and improvements to existing equipment and facilities to reduce energy consumption.
The loans are from 20 000 to 1.5 million euro. The energy efficiency loan borrower’s own participation should be at least 20 per cent of the invested amount, excluding Value Added Tax (VAT). Yordanov said that there was a gratis period of not more than 12 months until project completion.
All renewable energy projects that have been implemented successfully would receive 20 per cent of the loan granted as a subsidy from MKBU. Companies that have successfully executed energy efficiency projects would receive a subsidy amounting to 15 per cent of the loan granted.
Postbank and DZI Bank (P & DZI) are also active partners of the EBRD in the programme “credit line for energy efficiency and renewable energy sources for Bulgaria”, in financing corporate clients. P & DZI corporate communication manager Iliana Zaharieva told The Sofia Echo that projects applying for such grants were considered individually with a view to their investment effectiveness, ability of the company to fulfil the project and to service the credit and the offered coverage. P & DZI also offers free-of-charge consultancy on preparing a business plan and its verification by a consultancy company that is an EBRD partner.
Zaharieva said P & DZI had been granting clients loans for energy efficiency projects since September 2005. So far, about 20 per cent of consumer loans were for such projects. The interest for the whole period of eight years is 11.9 per cent up to 15 000 leva, and there is no fee for bank scrutiny of the application documents. There is only a fee if the loan is granted, amounting to 0.75 per cent of the sum. P & DZI also gives a VISA Electron credit card as a bonus to its clients.
She said that the results achieved in the loan programme were good. Most applications came in during the warmer months. In addition, Zaharieva said that most of the loans were granted for joinery change with energy saving windows, as well as for insulation and air conditioning systems.
UBB, which also participates in the EBRD program and the Energy Efficiency Agency programme, grants such loans to households. After successful completion of an energy saving project, UBB returns 20 per cent of the costs.
UBB gives loans for insulation of walls, ceilings and floors, purchase and mounting of joinery, gas boilers, biomass heating devices, sun collectors for warm water, and thermal-pumping systems for house heating and air conditioning.
For customers who apply for loans of less than 5000 leva, UBB does not require an income document. The amounts granted by the bank are between 500 and 8500 leva.
http://www.sofiaecho.com/article/demand-for-energy-efficiency-loans-in-bulgaria/id_25579/catid_23
27 septembre 2007
INTERVIEW-Bulgaria may list energy monopolies stakes in '08
SOFIA, Sept 26 (Reuters) - Bulgaria may list minority stakes in its state gas and power monopolies on its bourse at the start of 2008 if the ruling coalition approves the long-debated plan, the economy and energy minister said on Wednesday.
Petar Dimitrov said his Socialist-led government would not consider full privatisation of gas monopoly Bulgargaz and power utility NETC as they wanted to protect consumers and ensure that domestic energy prices remained low.
"We have been discussing the creation of a joint energy holding, a minority stake in which will be listed on the bourse," the minister told Reuters in an interview.
"It could be done in the beginning of next year. The strategy is ready. If there is a political will it will be implemented," he added.
Sofia's move to lump the two companies together would be at odds with a European Commission plan to open markets for more competition and force energy utilities to separate energy generation from transmission networks.
But Dimitrov said the proposed combination of Bulgargaz and NETC into a joint holding company followed a wave of consolidation in western Europe.
"All energy giants in Europe move towards consolidation. We have no reasons to be happy with small energy companies," he said.
The two Bulgarian companies are small players on the European market but are expected to attract strong investor interest.
NETC owns the high-voltage power grid and is the dominant power exporter in Bulgaria, while Bulgargaz owns the entire gas network and is a shareholder in international oil and gas pipeline projects such as the planned Nabucco gas link from the Caspian to Europe.
The government has been debating the possible partial privatisation of the energy monopolies over the past two years, to raise private capital for their growth, but no concrete actions have been undertaken so far.
LOW ENERGY PRICES
Dimitrov said that passing a majority stake in Bulgargaz and NETC into private hands was out of the question.
"For now it is in the interest of the Bulgarian people not to do that. Our domestic energy prices are twice as low as the regional prices," he said.
"A private company would like to sell on the international market ... We would have to import more expensive electricity then, which would lead to a shock adjustment of prices to European Union levels".
Electricity prices in Bulgaria, which meets all of its power needs from domestic production, are twice as low as average EU prices. Prices of gas, all imported from Russia, are about 30 percent lower than average EU levels, the ministry's data showed.
The former communist country has gradually increased energy prices over the past 15 years but is reluctant to free the market as Bulgaria remains the poorest European Union nation, with average incomes at about a third of the bloc's levels. (Additional reporting by Tsvetelia Ilieva)
http://uk.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idUKL2637210520070926
12 septembre 2007
WIND TURBINES WORTH 180 M EURO TO BE BUILT IN BULGARIA
Danish company Greentech will invest a total of 180 million euro in wind turbines in Bulgaria.
The company plans to construct 118 turbines in the Stara Planina Mountain, ipo.bg reported.
Greentech had already agreed with Chiprovtsi municipality on the construction of more than 60 wind turbines in the region.
The company will see to the construction of infrastructure in the region and the creation of work places for the local population.
The project has to be complete by the end of 2010.
Encore Energy Systems Expands Operations to Bulgaria, Europe
BRIGHTON, Mich., Sept. 11 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Encore Energy Systems, Inc. , a rapidly growing diversified energy company announces a new distributor partnering agreement with Bulgarian company.
The distributor will rename to Encore Energy Systems (Bulgaria) and be given exclusive country rights to promote and sell the Company's patented DeMarco Energy Miser system. Under the terms of the memorandum of understanding, the new company will be provided engineering design support and preferential distributor pricing for the Energy Miser geothermal heat pumps.
Bulgaria is experiencing rapid change since joining the European Union in January, 2007. The country is modernizing after years of neglect to become recognized as an equal member of the EEC nations. Massive construction projects of residential and commercial property is leading to demands for the latest energy efficient materials and technology. Encore holds the patent on the grey-water heat exchanger process and has experienced unprecedented demand for its geothermal systems. The Company anticipates continuing its current growth strategy of international distribution.
CEO of Encore Bulgaria, Stan Christov Vassilev was attracted to Encore Energy after reading articles describing our unique patented system involving connection directly to the water supply. Eliminating the costs to drill expensive boreholes or dig trenching to lay new pipes convinced him that he had selected the right partner.
About the Company
Encore Energy Systems grows through energy-related acquisitions, marketing its patented geothermal water-air heating/cooling systems, and sales of energy conservation solutions.
The company's geothermal marketing unit, DeMarco Energy Systems of America, Inc. (http://www.demarcoenergy.com), has geothermal installations in Oregon, Pennsylvania, Washington, Montana, South Dakota, Mississippi, California and Texas. Encore's primary focus is to provide energy efficient technologies to commercial and institutional markets that result in significant energy and cost savings. For more information, visit http://www.encoreenergyinc.com.
Safe-Harbor Statement
This press release contains statements (such as projections regarding future performance) that are forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those projected as a result of certain risks and uncertainties, including but not limited to those detailed from time to time in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/prnewswire/CLTU07311092007-1.htm
BULGARIA TO SELL ITS SHARE IN SOFIA'S HEATING SUPPLY COMPANY
The Bulgarian state is considering selling its share in Sofia's Toplofikatsia heating supply company.
Standart daily reported that Economy and Energy Minister Petar Dimitrov, representatives of the World Bank (WB) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) had met to discuss the issue. The WB and EBRD are Toplofikatsia's creditors on state-guaranteed loans.
The state has 42 per cent of Toplofikatsia. The majority owner is Sofia's municipal council, which has 58 per cent.
The EBRD loan was provided several years ago on condition that Toplofikatsia would attract at least one private investor. This requirement has not been met, leading to the company forfeiting nearly 15 million euro of the loan.
Experts preparing Toplofikatsia's privatisation face a problem in dealing with the company's close to 150 million leva debt to Bulgarian gas supplier Bulgargaz.
Energy giants Gasprombank, Dalkia, EVN, and CEZ have already shown interest in Toplofikatsia.
http://www.sofiaecho.com/article/bulgaria-to-sell-its-share-in-sofias-heating-supply-company/id_24809/catid_67
Bulgaria Not to Sell Its Share of Bourgas-Alexandroupolis Pipeline
| 12 September 2007 | 06:44 | FOCUS News Agency |
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Sofia. Bulgaria has given up the idea of selling its share in the Bourgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline, the news was spread by Reuters, as quoting a Bulgarian energy expert. |
09 septembre 2007
Bulgaria's Kozloduy Nuke Unit 5 Back Online
Unit 5 of Bulgaria's sole nuclear power plant at Kozloduy on the Danube River was reconnected to the power grid on Sunday, after undergoing emergency shutdown earlier this month.
On September 1, the unit was taken offline for repairs after a short circuit in the power generator triggered the automated safety system shutdown in the 1000-megawatt VVER type unit.
The incident did not cause any radioactive leaks, power plant officials said then.
With unit 5 back in operation, the power plant began shutting down unit 6 for annual maintenance. It is expected to be disconnected from the power grid later in the day.
At the end of last year, hours before joining the European Union, the country shut down reactors number 3 and 4 at Kozloduy nuclear power station to meet the safety requirements of the European bloc.
Units 5&6 remain online and working, while units 1&2, the oldest pair, were shut down in 2003.
http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=85072