AES to Cut by 14% Power Price in Bulgaria, ContourGlobal Agrees to 17% Decrease

The Bulgarian units of US companies AES and ContourGlobal agreed with state-owned power utility NEK on a decrease by 14% and 17%, respectively, in the capacity price for electricity produced by their coal-fired plants in the southeast of the country, the Bulgarian government said on Wednesday.

For its part, NEK will pay all arrears to the two companies amounting to a total of 700 million levs ($389 million/358 million euro), the government said in a statement posted on its website.

The agreement with NEK for an amendment to the Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) that the plants have with the utility will result in cumulative savings for NEK of about 1.0 billion levs andannual savings of about 100 million levs over the remaining term of the PPAs, it added.

AES, which operates the Maritsa Iztok 1 coal-fired plant in Galabovo, and ContourGlobal, which owns Maritsa Iztok 3 TPP, signed PPAs with NEK in 2001. The PPAs expire in 2026.

Binding agreements are expected to be signed by the third quarter of the year, subject to customary regulatory approvals and approval from the project lenders, the Bulgarian unit of AES said in a statement earlier in the day.

In February AES and ContourGlobal signed a memorandum with NEK on a decrease in theprices at which it buys electricity produced by the two companies' plants.

Source: SeeNews