Sofia District Heating Company's Technical and Financial Problems Are Getting Worse

Sofia District Heating Company is in a critical financial and technical condition and part of the energy capacity is not working. This was announced today by the Municipal Council Boris Bonev at a special briefing. Next Wednesday we are convening an extraordinary meeting of the Sofia Municipal Council (SOC) in connection with the problems of "Sofia District Heating Company" EAD, announced municipal councilors from the group "Continuing Change - Democratic Bulgaria" ("Save Sofia") - PP-DB-SS.

Municipal Councilor Bonka Vasileva explained that in order to convene an extraordinary meeting of the council, 21 votes of municipal councilors are needed. According to her, they want the management of "District Heating Sofia EAD" to attend this extraordinary meeting to answer the questions - what is coming, as well as whether there is financial indebtedness between the state, the company and the supplier. Vasileva called on all municipal councilors to fulfill their commitment and ask the management at the upcoming meeting. She believes that the problems are deepening and there is a great danger that this company will collapse.

Municipal councilor Simeon Stavrev presented data on the company and said that the revenues of "District Heating Sofia" EAD for 2023 are 1.1 billion. BGN, and the expenses for the same year are BGN 1.2 billion. This means that the company is constantly at a loss, Stavrev noted. He added that these data are not only for 2023, but for the last 10 years. Stavrev explained that for 2023, the company brought in BGN 464 million from the sale of heat energy, and BGN 672 million from the sale of electricity. This means that about 40% are from the sale of electricity alone, and most people do not know that they sell electricity. According to him, the company has the capacity to double these capacities, but has not done so for decades.

Stavrev added that according to data for 2023, the registered accidents are 1,500, while four years earlier they were 1,100. This means that the company is not investing in the maintenance of its heating system and accidents are becoming more frequent, the municipal councilor noted. He added that in 2023 6.4 million leva have been invested in accidents, with revenues of over one billion leva, this is ridiculous, said Stavrev. In his words, in addition to all this, the price for the end user has significantly increased over the years.

There is a strong need to pay attention to the current technical condition of "District Heating Sofia EAD", pointed out the municipal councilor Boris Bonev. He said that they are receiving extremely worrying information about the technical condition of this company. We believe that there is a risk that Sofia residents will not have heat and hot water during the Christmas holidays, if there is no change in the management of " District Heating" and maintenance of the technical facilities of the company, said Bonev.

He explained that a few weeks ago a letter was received in the Sofia Municipality from the trade union organizations of " District Heating" with very worrying information. It states that 700 people work in the central office, but the facilities are not working and will not work at least until January. Administrative, not technical staff, determines when and what is needed to maintain the technical condition of the company, Bonev noted. He also explained that the signals they receive from the citizens of Sofia about accidents are daily. These are problems inherited from the GERB government, Bonev was categorical. It was they and the economic majority in the SOS, which was formed around GERB, who chose the new management of "District Heating Sofia" EAD, the municipal councilor added.