At its last meeting, the Council of Ministers approved the new program for compensating the costs of electricity for non-household end consumers, as well as network operators for purchasing electricity to cover technological losses. The two programs cover the period from 01.10.2022 to 31.12.2022.
The indicative budget for the program amounts to 3.594 billion BGN of which 3.214 billion BGN for business consumers and 380 million BGN for network operators. The funds will be provided by the Fund “Security of the Electric System” (FSES), from additional targeted contributions to the fund coming from the state-owned Kozloduy NPP, TPP Maritsa East 2 and NEK.
The amount of compensation for businesses is calculated as the difference between the average monthly Day-ahead market price and the fixed price of 250 BGN /MWh. Compensation for customers with prices below the base price of 250 BGN /MWh is not acceptable.
FSES will pay the compensation under the program. The funds will be transferred to the electricity suppliers after they have invoiced the compensations in the form of a discount of the electricity bill of end consumers. The conditions and procedure for submission of applications by the suppliers, their examination and the payment of compensations are determined in a contract. The sample contracts are approved by the Management Board of FSES and are published on the fund’s website. FSES will check whether the invoices issued by the suppliers have included compensation. After the checks are completed, the FSES will transfer the money to the traders.
Until now, the fund paid the compensations around the 15th-18th of the month following the month for which they were due. The updated support program allows FSES to make one interim payment to electricity traders within the month. The amount of the interim payment will be up to 80% of size of the compensation, calculated using an interim baseload price of the power exchange.
The additional administrative burden and the financial risk of the deferred compensation payments are borne entirely by the electricity suppliers. In case of soaring electricity prices in the period October – December 2022, suppliers will face liquidity problems, which endanger the functioning of the market.
