Ever since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Bulgaria has seen significant economic gains despite the prolonged political instability that continues to rage in Sofia and the increased likelihood of the fifth general election in two years.
According to data from energy think tank Enappsys, the Balkan country has been catapulted to third place in Europe in terms of net electricity exports in the first half of 2022 after it exported a net 6.6 TWh of electricity mostly to neighboring Romania, Greece, North Macedonia, Turkey, and Serbia.
The state-owned Bulgarian Energy Holding (BEH), which faced a difficult situation before the war due to expensive carbon quotas and the bankruptcy-prone Sofia central heating plant has now earned nearly €1.5 billion from the sale of electricity in the Balkans.
Thanks to these profits, the price of electricity for Bulgarian households remains stable despite hikes throughout Europe since Sofia managed to compensate businesses for the high prices on the stock exchanges.
Just how important this stability can be shows the Gallup International Poll released on Tuesday which showed that Bulgarians are more concerned with the excessive increase in prices than the escalation of the war in Ukraine.
Most of the respondents (87.9%) fear of the danger of excessive price increases in Bulgaria, around 78.3% fear that there is not enough gas, while 77.9% are worried that Bulgaria might fall into permanent political instability.
Faced with global energy turbulence, the Balkan region has also demonstrated increased reliance on Bulgarian coal to compensate for the uncertainty of the gas and oil market.
For the first time in history, Bulgarian state-owned coal mines “Maritsa Iztok” signed an unprecedented contract to export 1.75 million tonnes of Bulgarian lignite coal to Serbia in 2022. Sofia has also agreed to export Bulgarian electricity to North Macedonia during the winter.
Half of Bulgaria’s electricity is produced with coal and another 25% comes from the nuclear power plant in Kozloduy NPP reactors, one of which Sofia isn’t even using as it is undergoing scheduled maintenance.
The electricity from coal is occupying the largest share of Bulgarian electricity exports.
