The Council of Ministers must decide the future of the "Maritsa-East" complex within 10 days

The deputies obliged the Council of Ministers to prepare a report on the implementation of the decisions of the National Assembly related to the future of the "Maritsa-East" complex, after votes, on the proposal of "Vazrazhdane", a draft decision.

The decision was supported by 152 votes "for", zero - "against" and three - "abstentions", it was reported BTA.

Thus, the Council of Ministers is obliged to prepare and submit to the National Assembly a report on all planned, undertaken and implemented actions in the implementation of these decisions, related to the future of the "Maritsa-East" complex, within ten days from the adoption of the decision.

The Council of Ministers will have to report chronologically on the steps taken in connection with the change of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRSP) in the energy part. The decision also requires the Minister of Energy to inform the people's representatives about all the steps taken by him regarding the changes in the NPVU. In addition, the deputies want to get acquainted with all the correspondence between Bulgaria and the European Commission on this topic.

Minister Malinov: The state of the electricity market is "extremely vulnerable"

There is great potential for exporting electricity to the Ukrainian market. The state of power generation capacity there is currently very dire, and in a normal winter, the Ukrainian system is expected to have a deficit of between 4 and 6 gigawatts of electricity per hour during cold days. This deficit must be compensated and this is an opportunity for the Bulgarian energy industry.

This was stated by the Acting Minister of Energy Vladimir Malinov during his hearing in the National Assembly.

"Bulgaria has an active role in increasing the technical capacity to import electricity to Ukraine, because currently there are restrictions of 1,7 gigawatts at the level of the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E) and the struggle is to get this capacity increased to 2,2-2,4 gigawatts," said Minister Malinov.

Roughly speaking, he noted, the 11-million-ton carbon emissions cap would allow the state-owned plant in the Mariska Basin, at 6000 hours of operation per year, to operate at 90 percent of its installed capacity, which represents 1,4 gigawatts of production within the set threshold in the NPVU, which is not subject to renegotiation by the European Commission.

"Given the estimated 11 million tons of carbon footprint and the existing calorific value of the coal in the Mariska Basin, this is nearly 15 million tons, which gives people in the region the opportunity to work not only for land reclamation, but also for the implementation of their basic obligations under the lignite mining concession contract. So I believe that with the achievement we have, we enable these generating capacities to work without time limits, I'm not even talking about the year 2038, but within an unfathomable horizon," Minister Malinov pointed out.

During the hearing, Malinov described the current state of the electricity market in the region as "extremely vulnerable".

Regarding the set emission threshold of 11 million tons, starting from January 2026, Vladimir Malinov informed the MPs about what was achieved during the talks with the EC in recent months with a view to the changes in the EPA and the addition of the new chapter RePowerEU. Thus, within this general threshold, according to the measure for the decarbonization of the Bulgarian energy sector, the ceilings for each individual installation have been dropped, according to the latest information. The talks also discussed the transition to low-emission energy through market rather than administrative and financial measures.

According to the estimates of the Ministry of Energy, Bulgaria will fit into the restrictions of 11 million tons already this year, and this is due to the suspended operation of the TPP "ConturGlobal Maritsa-East 3" in February, and in the middle of 2026 it will expire the validity period of the long-term contract with TPP "AES Galabovo".