Bulgaria’s Energy Watchdog Pledges No Significant Rise in Power Bills

All electricity distribution companies requested an increase in electricity prices but this will not affect them because the Energy and Water Regulatory Commission (EWRC) will only recognize the costs that are absolutely necessary and the public interest will be protected, Ivan Ivanov, the chair of the EWRC told journalists before the start of the conference "Clean Energy and Industrial Competitiveness for Sustainable Development - Coherence, Competitiveness and Security of Delivery" on 11^th of April.

"We will not allow any significant increase," Ivanov assured.

Ivanov did not specify how much the increase requested by the various companies was, but indicated that some of them had requested a double increase. Meanwhile, it became clear that average increase requested by CEZ was 16.28%.

On the issue of the sale of CEZ's assets in Bulgaria, Ivanov said he did not have any new information, but said that next Tuesday he would again attend a meeting of the Ad-Hoc Committee, which is dealing with the issue. The meeting was initiated by the two nationally represented trade unions - CITUB and Podkrepa.