December 1 (SeeNews) - Bulgarian thermal power plant (TPP) Maritsa 3 [BUL:MR3] nearly doubled its consolidated net loss to a little over 30 million levs ($16 million/15.3 million euro) in the first nine months of 2022, from 16.8 million levs in the same period of last year, it said on Thursday.
The power plant operator's revenue slumped to 3.55 million levs in the January-September period from 21.7 million levs in the comparable period of 2021, it said in an interim financial statement.
Coal-fired TPP Maritsa 3's expenses went down to 33.1 million levs in the reporting period from 37.6 million levs the year before.
In September, Maritsa 3 had to temporarily halt operations, for the second time this year, due to breaches of environmental regulations.
In November, the European Commission said that Bulgaria is required to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 10% compared to 2005 levels under provisionally agreed annual binding targets for EU member states valid to 2030.
In July 2020, the power plant operator received a 10-year extension to its operating licence, starting from January 1, 2021. At the time, the energy ministry said that the government will rely on cold reserve capacity, if needed, only from state-owned coal-fired TPP Maritsa East 2, as a result of the implementation of new rules. Prior to that, the bulk of Maritsa 3 TPP's revenues came from contracts with the government for providing cold reserve capacity for electricity supplies.
The 120-MW TPP Maritsa 3 is located in the town of Dimitrovgrad, in southern Bulgaria.
Shares in TPP Maritsa 3 last changed hands at 134.62 levs on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange's BaSE market, bourse data showed.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)