Bulgarian watchdog postpones electricity price hike for one month

Bulgaria's Energy and Water Regulatory Commission (EWRC) postponed for one month the electricity price hike that was supposed to take effect this Wednesday, EWRC said in a press release on Monday.

According to a new electricity pricing model proposed by EWRC at the end of May, the electricity price for industrial consumers and households was going to jump from two percent to about 10 percent as from July 1.

However, in a closed session on Monday, the EWRC decided to consider important circumstances which could have an impact on pricing in the electric power sector, the press release said.

In the short term, the ministers of energy, finance and economy would jointly issue a regulation for reducing the burden of the cost of energy from renewable sources, EWRC clarified.

EWRC expected it would create the possibility of finding reserves to optimize costs and thus the price of electricity, the press release said.

According to Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union (EU), Bulgarian households pay the lowest electricity prices in the EU; 0.090 euro (some 0.10 U.S. dollars) per kilowatt-hour (kWh), with the average price in the EU at 0.208 euro per kWh.

As for industrial consumers, the electricity price in Bulgaria is 0.0832 euro per kWh while the average EU price is 0.120 euro (0.134 U.S. dollars) per kWh, Eurostat said. Endit