Bulgaria's National Electric Company (NEK) held an emergency meeting Friday to come up with a plan for priority rehabilitation and replacement of elements of the electric power network.

The move comes on the heels of several recent power outages on the Black Sea coast, affecting negatively the tourist industry, and aims at reducing to the minimum the threat of potential blackouts. The worst among these incidents occurred at the end of July when the failure of two NEK posts left nearly 56 000 vacationers strained without electric power, air conditioning and hot water, prompting many to leave early or cancel holiday plans.

The NEK management decided Friday the first short-term action would be to replace the now existing power lines in northeastern Bulgaria in order to increase two times the capacity of the network. Replacement has already begun in the area of the northern coastal towns of Shabla and Kavarna.

During the meeting, the years-long lack of significant investments in the electric power network had been listed as the main reason for the staggering problems.

The NEK Press release further points out that the company will further work on a strategy for the development of the network in order to be able to deal with the increased demand of power in the area, triggered by the wind energy farms in the area and the hike in consumption of electricity during the summer due to the numerous beach resorts.

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