Changes in the Energy Act affected many interests and lobbies, which are now trying their best to restore the current status quo. With minor variations this mantra has been often repeated by representatives of the the parties supporting the current Government in Parliament, BSP, DPS and Attaka. None of the politicians, however, expressly stated who these businessmen whose interests have been affected.
Primarily the changes in energy act will be felt by the so-called factory plants, which are supervised by the State Energy and Water Regulatory Commission (regulator) as cogeneration and receive high feed prices, although for many of them it is questionable how effective this could be. While energy minister in the government of GERB, Delian Dobrev, and, later, his successor in the cabinet, Assen Vassilev, repeatedly stated that the owners of such facilities downright cheat.
Instead powering their own activities, they prefer to sell to the state at preferential prices from 130-140 levs per megawatt/hour and then buy the required quantities from NEC for 75 levs and thus generate profit. Now, the regulatory changes from the current power stations will be used first to meet the needs of the undertaking, and the rest will be purchased by the operator of the electricity system. It is worth seeing, however,
who is behind the companies.
TPP Sviloza for example belongs to two offshore companies with an equal number of shares – Sokoleks Ltd., represented by Lyubomir Nikolov and ITC Construction Ltd, which has an office in the U.S. state of Delaware. Interestingly, the latter company is represented by Ilko Stiliyanov Akov. As the BANKER already wrote, it is part of the circle affiliates in energy, who flourished during the rule of ex-government of GERB party. In the same range falls ABB Electrification of Bistra Stiliyanova Akova implementing acts, and Energy Market, where the procurator is still the same Ilko Stiliyanov Akov. In the industry it is said that the two companies are related to businessman Borislav Lorinkov who holds a number of companies with different profiles of business.
Otherwise the regulator has set for Sviloza a very nice price for electricity produced by cogeneration – 141.57 levs per megawatt/hour. The most recent data in the records of the energy regulator for electricity produced by the plant are for 2011 and show a total of 25 238 Mwh produced. So if one makes one simple calculation, it appears that NEC has paid to the company more than 3.5 million levs.
Another factory plant to sense changes in the Energy Act is BIOVET of Peshtera. It is owned by Huvepharma AD, which in turn s owned by Advance Properties of George and Cyril Domuschiev brothers and the registered in Luxembourg offshore Silverspot Investments. The plant itself boasts a preferential price of over 184 levs per megawatt hour and a volume of production of 33,638 MWh (back in 2011) which means solid revenues of more than 6 million levs.
The owner of Lukoil Energy and Gas Bulgaria
is also a company registered abroad. This is the Dutch Lukoil Europe Holdings BV and manager of the TPP is Russian citizen Arkady Churkin. This plant also enjoys a very high price for their combined production – over 205 levs per megawatt/hour. Regulator decided that it may be granted a certificate for 141,203 megawatt/hours of energy without having met the criteria for high efficiency.
Specifically behind Deven plant is a Belgian corporation Solvay – one of the largest producers of soda ash in the world. CEO of Bulgaria’s entity is Spyros Nomikos, and the board includes President of the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce, Borislav Danev.
Another factory plant, TPP Brickell, is again owned by a foreign entity. Shares are in the hands of the Seychelles offshore company registered as Moller Corp., though ultimate ownership is considered to belong to businessman Hristo Kovachky. For this one the power energy regulator was awarded attractive rate of 127.8 levs per megawatt/hour lev. In 2011 NEC bought from it 405,296 megawatt/hours of electricity, which
at current prices makes over 50 million levs.
Besides power stations, from the corrections to the energy law will suffer also heat generators. Not surprisingly, during the debate ate the respective parliamentary committee during the second reading of the act, CEO of the Sofia Heat generator, Stoyan Tsvetanov, said that the company had no way to shrink costs and offset the deficit if the price at which it sells generated electricity is reduced. About 80% of the heat is related to the cost of the fuel components – natural gas. The remaining tariff is for salaries and allowances for depreciation of equipment, he explained.
Except for Sofia district heating company, the highest preferential price per megawatt hour – 294.33 levs, currently has been awarded to Veliko Turnovo Heat VT AD. According to official data, already in 2012, it has produced 21,850 MWh, which under the current price comes to over 6.4 million levs. The definition company based in Veliko Tarnovo does not seem very appropriate in this case, too. Our investigation showed that 98% of the company is in the hands of
a registered in the Seychelles
offshore Revindale Ltd., represented by attorney Vesela Ilieva Vasileva. Its CEO is Peter Ivanov Petrov, who occupies the counterpart position in TPP Bobov Dol.
