Bulgaria’s state-owned Maritsa East thermal power plant has received €1.3 billion in state funding for 2019-2023 as it is kept on ‘life support’, the Bulgarian office of Greenpeace, which is preparing a report on the issue, has said.
At the same time, the output of thermal power plants has fallen sharply in the last two years. Only 2022 was a very successful year for Bulgarian coal power, as the European energy crisis, triggered by a sharp reduction in Russian gas imports, pushed electricity prices to EU record highs.
The market began to return to normal as early as the end of 2022, and coal power revenues fell sharply the following year, while by 2024 the sector was back to its usual large losses, with production sustained only by government subsidies.
The €1.3 billion in state aid is conservative, and the government has probably poured more money into the coal plant, which relies on non-market measures to survive, according to Greenpeace Bulgaria’s calculations.
The state aid comes mainly from two sources. The first is a debt to the sole owner of the capital, Bulgarian Energy Holding (BEH), converted into fixed capital. The second is the sale of electricity to the regulated market. The public utility is obliged to purchase electricity from TPP Maritsa East 2 by order of the energy minister.
In the first three months of 2024, Maritsa East’s profits fell by as much as 95% year-on-year, and the company is operating at about a third of capacity.
“Coal-fired power plants are now only able to turn a profit in times of crisis when society as a whole – citizens and businesses – have to survive. Such a ‘feast during a plague’ cannot be a justification for maintaining the status quo at all costs and refusing to reform,” Meglena Antonova, Director of Greenpeace Bulgaria, has said.
“The role of TPP Maritsa East 2 in the Bulgarian energy system is already different – mostly seasonal and with limited capacity. We expect the state’s policies to reflect reality instead of illusory promises of coal power beyond 2030,” Antonova added.
Because of opposition from extremist and populist parties, Bulgaria has not yet passed the laws to receive €5 billion from the EU recovery package for the green transition.
In 2019, Greenpeace Bulgaria and the association For the Earth filed a lawsuit against the plant’s permit to operate in 2019, but the country’s highest administrative court continues to delay it.
In March 2023, the EU Court of Justice issued an interpretation that the Maritsa East 2 thermal power plant cannot operate without complying with environmental requirements if this would contribute to a violation of air quality standards.
Citing the EU Court’s decision, the Stara Zagora Administrative Court revoked the excess pollution permit for TPP Maritsa East 2.
The coal plant and the Executive Environmental Agency appealed the decision to the Supreme Administrative Court.
On Tuesday, the Supreme Administrative Court announced that it was sending the TPP approval case back to the Stara Zagora court because of basic technical errors in the court’s ruling.
(Krassen Nikolov | Euractiv.bg)
Source: euractiv.com
