The Committee on Energy in the National Assembly unanimously adopted

The Committee on Energy in the National Assembly unanimously adopted the Annual Report on the activities of thе Commission for Energy and Water Regulation (CEWR) in 2022. The official report of the regulator is adopted annually by the legislative body, after discussion in the parliamentary committee. The meeting was attended by the Chairman of the CEWR Prof. Ivan Ivanov, the members of the regulator Blagoi Golubarev, Penka Trendafilova, Dimitar Kochkov, the Chief Secretary of the Commission Rositsa Totkova and directors of directorates. Summarizing the main guidelines in the work of the Commission, laid down in the Annual Report, the chairman of CEWR Assoc. Ivan Ivanov emphasized that in 2022 they are mainly related to the adoption of price decisions, control of the electricity and natural gas markets, regulatory support to achieve connectivity of the Bulgarian energy sector at the regional and European level, development and improvement of the applied regulations. With a view to taking into account the interests of both consumers and producers, the regulator applies a balanced and conservative approach aimed at preserving the stability of the energy system in the adopted pricing decisions. The commission foresees that the price of electricity for household consumers will increase by 3.63% from 07.1.2023, which is nearly four times less than the official data on inflation in the country, said the chairman of CEWR. In this regard, he informed the people`s representatives about the emergence of a new circumstance, which will probably require the Commission to review the size of the proposed increase. A few days ago, the regulator received an order from the former Acting Minister of Energy, Rosen Hristov, with which an additional amount of electricity from the " Maritsa-East 2 " TPP in the amount of 2 million and 200,000 megawatt hours must be included in the regulated mix. According to Prof. Ivan Ivanov, this may lead to a certain increase in the price of electricity for household consumers on a regulated market. The specific amount is to be specified after the Commission prepares its new estimates. In fulfillment of its obligations under the European Regulation No. 1227/2011 /REMIT/ on transparency and integrity of the wholesale market, in 2022 CEWR continued active work on investigating cases of manipulations and abuses in the organized electricity market, informed the head of the regulator. As a result, six energy companies were fined over BGN 1,200,000 by a decision of the Commission. In a separate decision, another energy company was fined BGN 165,000. The Commission made a significant contribution to the timely adoption of the overall regulations for the start of the commercial operation of the Bulgarian-Greek gas connection IGB, according to which from October 1 Bulgaria annually receives 1 billion cubic meters of natural gas at competitive prices, stressed CEWR Chairman Prof. Ivan Ivanov.