Bulgaria's TPP Maritsa East 2 9-mo net profit, revenue plunge

Maritsa East 2’s total revenue dropped to some 1.13 billion levs in January-September from 2.77 billion levs a year earlier, according to an interim financial statement published by parent company Bulgarian Energy Holding (BEH).

Revenue from sales of electricity on the free market, including the Independent Bulgarian Energy Exchange (IBEX), totalled a little over 1 billion levs, down from 2.5 billion levs in the first nine months of 2022.

In parallel, the plant’s operating expenses narrowed to 1.05 billion levs from 1.97 billion levs. The company incurred greenhouse gas emission costs of some 551 million levs in the nine months through September, compared to 1.35 billion levs a year earlier.

The positive financial result in the review period was mainly due to sales on the free market through bilateral contracts in 2022, with delivery scheduled for 2023, Maritsa East 2 said. This, coupled with favourable auction prices and electricity production, outpaced the growth of the company's main production costs.

The company's total assets stood at 1.82 billion levs, marking a decline of 15% from the end of last year.

State-owned TPP Maritsa East 2 has eight operating units with a total installed capacity of 1,620 MW.

Last month, the Bulgarian government said it decided to extend the life of the country's coal-fired power plants until 2038, with no dates adopted for closing down any of these facilities.

(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)