Myths and facts about Bulgarian energy

In society, several myths are persistently suggested and imposed, the suggestions of which are profoundly false and, ultimately, dishonest

MYTH 1

Residential subscribers pay more than businesses - "obligations to society"

1. BASIC DATA

1.1. In the draft decision of KEVR from June - item II, 3, we read that the price at which NEC sells to final suppliers is BGN 119,87/MWh;

1.2. The average mixed price of electricity achieved by business users on the free market is about BGN 73/MWh. (the largest of ours reach BGN 70/MWh);

1.3. Within carefully selected work schedules - both Saturday-Sunday versus working days and within 24-hour working days (planned three-shift production modes) - with the aim of optimizing load schedules as close to band mode as possible - the best (as planning) by economic producers achieve between BGN 0,90. and BGN 1,20 per MWh. imbalances (when the production allows band load) and BGN 4,00. and BGN 5,20 per MWh. unbalances (when production does NOT allow bandloading, ie in the mass case of engineering, forging, textiles, etc., etc.)! Attention - these are values ​​with good planning, and for those who are both non-band and with old machines (respectively susceptible to emergency situations of turning on and off machines) - the imbalances easily reach 9-10 BGN/MWh.;

1.4. Household subscribers buy at the retail price, and historically in our country the difference compared to the wholesale price was not less than 1,5 times, and most often it is about 1,7 times, i.e. by about 50-70% the retail price is higher than the wholesale price. By the way, in the rest of the European countries the difference is significantly larger - between 2,5 and 4,0 times;

1.5. Household subscribers do not prepare cargo schedules, do not plan work shifts - they do not even come close to poor planners (see the last numbers in item 1.3 above). The most conservative estimate is that the costs of imbalances for them are higher than those of efficient non-band business users, which (I recall - item 1.3 above) are in the BGN 4,00 range. and BGN 5,20 per MWh. We compare non-band consumers - household and business;

1.6. Network charges are something separate, they are a function of the respective transmission systems – HV, MV, LV, as well as the respective regional access to the ETP, they are structurally similar for both participants in the free market and those in the regulated market – therefore, irrelevant are at current costings;

1.7. The concept of losses is expressed for household consumers and business consumers on a regulated market in the (tariffed) price at which KEVR allows the relevant ERP to sell - for example, for CEZ for a household subscriber at one scale - BGN 130,49/MWh (the project decision from June of KEVR - item V). For comparison, in the MV and LV network maintained by some industrial users, average losses of around BGN 1,80/MWh were found.

2. CALCULATIONS:

2.1. At the most conservative assumption for a retail price (50%) above the wholesale price for a non-band electricity user, we get:
BGN 73 * (1 + 50%) = BGN 109,50/MWh.

2.2. Under the most conservative assumption of an imbalance cost of a residential user versus a commercial non-band user (assuming they are the same) we have:
BGN 4,00 * 1 = BGN 4,00/MWh.

2.3. The most conservative sum of 2.1 and 2.2 is:
109,50 + 4,00 = BGN 113,50/MWh.

2.4. If one could define the "duty to society" component for a household user, it would be the difference between the values ​​specified in 1.1 and 2.3 above, namely:
119,87 – 113,50 = BGN 6,37/MWh.

CONCLUSION - With the most conservative calculations, the household pays the "obligations to society" component no more than BGN 6,37/MWh.. This value is definitely lower than the 50+ BGN thrown into space!

In addition, there are additional details such as that bit consumption is usually in and around peak hours.

MYTH 2

The largest users would pay about BGN 2 more than the old model.

We are offered the "obligations to society" component in the amount of BGN 40,21/MWh.
Of them – BGN 15,92/MWh. RES share.

The difference between BGN 40,21/MWh. and BGN 15,92/MWh. is BGN 24,29/MWh.

When paying only 15% of the RES share - according to the draft Ordinance, this means that for this component, large business will owe 15,92 * 15% = BGN 2,39/MWh

We collect BGN 24,29/MWh and BGN 2,39/MWh = BGN 26,68/MWh.

The old value of the "obligations to society" component is BGN 18,93/MWh.

The increase is therefore:
26,68 – 18,93 = BGN 7,75/MWh. - almost 4 times the difference compared to the claimed BGN 2/MWh!!!

Attention, this refers to really large businesses - with annual electricity consumption of around and over 300 GWh. – that's seven companies! The proclaimed effect for a threshold of 30 GWh. It will be even further than stated. 

For example, a company with an annual electricity consumption of 60 GWh or twice the declared threshold will pay BGN 14,51/MWh more, which is more than 7 times the difference compared to the stated BGN 2/MWh!!!