Bulgarian Energy Holding to pay 102.3 mln euro to state energy security fund

The indicative amount to be paid was determined based on the October profits of BEH's electricity generating subsidiaries as well as their earnings projections for November and December, the cabinet said in a press release.

Last month, the interim government decided that BEH would contribute 650 million levs to the energy security fund, in addition to an earlier determined instalment of 970 million levs.

The move to tax windfall profits of electricity producers is in line with a recent mechanism of state compensations paid out to wholesale end users as well as power transmission and distribution operators. This support measure was included in the revised 2022 budget to alleviate the burden of high electricity prices and transmission costs on businesses.

BEH recently reported a jump in standalone net profit to 1.4 billion levs for the nine months to end-September compared to 726.8 million levs a year earlier as revenue from client contracts grew more than threefold to 2.25 billion levs. Dividend payouts from subsidiaries including the Kozloduy nuclear power plant operator, Bulgargaz, Bulgartransgaz and the Electricity System Operator grew 26% on the year to 961.9 million levs in January-September.

Last week, the Bulgarian parliament voted to extend the existing compensations for high electricity bills for businesses until the end of 2023. The subsidies are based on the difference between the real average monthly base load price of the "day ahead" segment of the Bulgarian Independent Electricity Exchange (IBEX) for the relevant month and the base price of 250 levs per MWh.

Bulgarian lawmakers also put in place a compensation base price of 200 levs for large industrial electricity consumers, provided that they invest in energy efficiency improvements and develop renewable energy sources for their own use.

(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)