NEK will be compensated by the Electricity System Security Fund due to higher emission prices

The National Electricity Company (NEK) does not want an increase in electricity prices, but only compensation to cover the costs of carbon emissions, due to their increase from the set in the EWRC decision of July 1 last year 22 euros per ton to 31 euros per tonne to the reporting period. This became clear from the words of Ventsislav Markov from NEK during today's open meeting of a draft decision to change electricity prices during the price period. The meeting was held online.

The only thing we referred to the EWRC was the change in the prices of carbon emissions and the principle of their compensation through the Electricity System Security Fund (EUSF), as the costs in NEK in the two power plants - "Maritsa East 1" and "Maritsa East 3 "are directly related to the revenues received by the Issue Fund," Markov said.

He supports the EWRC's draft decision that there should be no change in electricity prices due to the increase in carbon prices. According to him, EWRC will update the prices for carbon emissions in a timely manner, as they have been increasing daily since the beginning of the year. Markov pointed out that carbon prices already exceed 40 euros per tonne. In this sense, he clarified that it is good when adopting the decision of the EWRC to update it with higher prices for carbon emissions, so as not to accumulate uncompensated costs in NEK, which will be claimed later.

It is worth clarifying that to date the price of emissions is 38.65 euros per tonne.

NEK EAD has notified the EWRC by letter dated January 28 this year that the company's costs for purchasing electricity from TPP AES Maritsa East 1 and TPP ContourGlobal Maritsa East 3 have been increased, as the prices of greenhouse gas allowances are higher than set in the EWRC decision of July 1, 2020. In this decision, when forming the costs of NEK EAD for the purchase of electricity from these two plants, the costs for the purchase of greenhouse gas allowances are valued at a price of 22 .00 euros per tonne.

The report of the working group, attached to the previously published report, also analyzes the EUSF, according to which due to the revenues from the sale of emission allowances, the Fund will accumulate a surplus of funds of about BGN 159 million. a deficit is formed in the EUSF.

We remind you that a similar model was applied last year. Then, through the EUSF, NEK also received compensation for the higher costs.

The closed meeting of the EWRC, which will decide whether the prices of electricity will change during the price period, will be held on February 24, said the chairman of the EWRC Ivan Ivanov.