The open work at the three mines of Mines Maritza-East is being terminated (today), but the mining sections are still in operation. This was decided at a meeting of the operational headquarters for measures to prevent the spread of COVID 19 coronavirus, which was formed in the company. The measure is being introduced until March 31, to prevent the spread of coronavirus infection in the enterprise and will not lead to problems with the rhythmic supply of coal to the TPP of the complex, the company assure. In order to create a good methodology for prevention in the mining complex, given the declared state of emergency in the country, the operational headquarters will be in direct contact with the Regional Operational Headquarters in Stara Zagora. Various forms of absence of work are being undertaken in order to minimize the number of staff required for the normal operation of the complex and to ensure the normal supply of coal to the power plants. CEO Anton Andonov said that the company has 85 million tonnes of open coal ready to go to thermal power plants.
Source: investor.bg (17.03.2020)

The "rescue" of TPP Maritsa-East 2 for three months costs almost BGN 1 billion The state continues to pour huge resources into the troubled TPP Maritsa East 2, and the bill for the "rescue" is already about BGN 1 billion. At the beginning of the week, the Bulgarian Energy Holding (BEH) bought the necessary greenhouse gas quotas for 2019 for the state power plant, which according to the company's report are worth a total of BGN 306 million. This became clear at a meeting between the line minister Temenuzhka Petkova and the leaders of the two trade unions CITUB and Podkrepa - Plamen Dimitrov and Dimitar Manolov, in connection with the consequences for the energy sector of the COVID-19 pandemic. With this financial aid, the state financing of the debt-ridden TPP Maritsa-East 2, which reported a new loss of BGN 210 million last year, is approaching BGN 1 billion within less than three months. On March 4, BEH decided to increase the capital of the plant by BGN 597 million, transforming part of the TPP's debt to the holding. Although on the verge of bankruptcy, the company is not cutting costs, and high energy prices deprive it of the opportunity to participate in the free market. Against this background, the state is persistently trying to support its work, mostly for political reasons - it employs about 2,400 people, and in addition to its activities, several hundred more people are employed in the state Maritsa East Mines.
Source: investor.bg (21.05.2020)

The mining industry produced output worth BGN 2.9 billion in 2019 The extraction of mineral resources in the country has increased slightly last year in terms of volume, but due to the rise in gold prices the value of production increased faster and reached a total of BGN 2.9 billion. This is shown by the data from the annual bulletin of the Bulgarian Mining and Geological Chamber (BMGC). However, the prices of some metals marked a significant drop in international markets, which created difficulties for many mining companies, said the chairman of the chamber Nikolay Valkanov, who is also the main owner of the mines for lead-zinc ores. The country also mines copper ores, as well as non-metallic mineral resources and fuels. In 2019, the trend of recent years to reduce coal production continues, and liquid fuels in general have a negligible share. Mineral production last year remained almost unchanged, rising by just over 1% to 109.9 million tonnes in total. The production of rock facing materials increased the most (22%), but with minimal volumes in general. There is an increase of 8% in the extraction of aggregates, which is mainly related to the development of construction. For ores, which are a key group of raw materials with nearly a third of the total yield, the increase is 3%. The most significant is the decline in coal mining - 7%, as the downward trend continues for the second consecutive year, and the result of 32.1 million tons of production is the lowest since 2014.
Source: Capital (26.08.2020)

BEH gives BGN 50 million loan to Mini Maritsa Iztok, grants BGN 5 million to employees Bulgarian Energy Holding will allocate BGN 50 million to the Maritza Iztok complex, Energy Minister Temenuzhka Petkova said after a meeting of the Branch Council for Tripartite Cooperation, Mining and Geology. Separately, another BGN 5 million is allocated for updating the salaries of the people working in the companies, she added. The salaries of the people working in the mines of the complex have not been increased for 30 months, said the President of CITUB Plamen Dimitrov. Earlier, Prime Minister Boyko Borissov also met with CITUB President Plamen Dimitrov and representatives of the Mini Maritsa Iztok trade unions. The talks focused on the future of the Maritza Iztok complex, as well as the government's measures to deal with the socio-economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The meeting with the Prime Minister was attended by Deputy Prime Minister Tomislav Donchev and Deputy Minister of Energy Zhecho Stankov. "and the third topic is the 'Green Deal', prepared by the European Commission," said Minister Petkova. 'Our government has clearly declared its attitude to the Maritza Iztok complex and the coal-fired power plants. Bulgaria will continue to rely on these power plants at least until 2030, with a horizon of 2050,' Temenuzhka Petkova said. 'The thermal power plants of the Maritza Iztok complex produce 46 percent of the energy Bulgaria needs,' Temenujka Petkova reminded.
Source: Darik Radio (09.09.2020)

Bulgaria will have to import electricity in the winter Bulgaria will have to import electricity in the winter. This is stated by the Electricity System Operator in the Plan for Development of the Transmission Electric Network of Bulgaria for the period 2020-2029, submitted to the EWRC. ESO warns that there will be a drastic disparity in the ability to cover domestic electricity consumption. In some years, it will even be necessary to activate the slow tertiary reserve and/or import electricity. According to the company, the situation will be even worse if long-term extreme winter conditions, exhausted primary energy resources in hydropower plants and condensing plants and increased capacity failures are combined, as was the case in January 2017. In order to avoid such critical situations, ESO explains that they have started conducting tenders for the supply of a slow tertiary reserve from electricity consumers. Joining the European Union "within the day" would allow us to cover possible shortages through imports. For the first time in the plan, ESO has taken into account the impact of Turkey's electricity system on the region. The forecasts of the Turkish operator are for a large growth of new generating sources over 140 GW of installed capacity by 2040. At the same time, no new large-scale sources of electricity are available in Bulgaria, available 24 hours a day, which do not emit greenhouse gases. This will lead to an increase in transit flows through our country in the east-west direction and "may make the Bulgarian-Turkish and Bulgarian-Serbian border bottlenecks that would restrict free trade." The transit through Bulgaria would become even bigger, with the reduction of the production from the generating capacities in the complex Maritsa East, according to ESO.
Source: Trud (16.10.2020)