Czech-owned power utility CEZ says it needs approval from the state for larger-scale investments in order to keep up with the growing number of requests for including new renewable energy plants into the power distribution network.

In the first nine months of 2010, the number of requests rose by 52% (606 requests) year-on-year (vs. 398 requests in the same period of 2009).

The total capacity of the plants to be included in the network grew from 453.67 MW last year to 628.57 MW in 2010.

"While the requests for plugging in new plants are increasing dramatically, the investment funds approved for us by the state regulator remain the same. You understand that with a limited volume of investments, there have to funding preferences. At the end of the day, if we meet our legal obligations, we will have to redirect some of the funds for rehabilitation and modernization of the power grid. This in itself will hurt our clients. Since we care for our clients, and we also realized the important role of renewable energy sources in the country's power system, we call upon the state regulator to increase the amount of investments approved for our network," stated Atanas Dandarov, member of the Governing Board of CEZ Razpredelenie Bulgaria.

For 2008-2012, Bulgaria's State Commission for Energy and Water Regulation (DKEVR) recognized to CEZ, the power utility in Sofia and Western Bulgaria, the right of a total of BGN 71 M in investments. Divided by the number of clients that the company has, for the above-mentioned period CEZ will invest less than BGN 35 per capita.

At the same time, the two other utilities, EVN and E.ON invest BGN 75 and BGN 65 respectively.

CEZ says that in order to meet its legal requirements for quality of the service, it will need a total of BGN 130 M in investments approved by DKEVR amounting to BGN 130 M.

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