The construction of the Gorna Arda cascade in Southern Bulgaria will be resumed in 2 months, vowed Bulgarian MEP and nuclear energy expert Vladimir Urutchev.

“The new investor, the Austrian company EVN, which took over from the Turkish holding Ceyhan, has declared full mobilization in order to continue work on Gorna Arda; that is why I think the project will finally be realized,” stated Urutchev during a meeting with local residents near the city of Kardzhali, as cited by Darik Radio.

He did mention, however, his expectation that the work will probably go at a slower rate at first because of possible financial trouble as banks are unwilling to give credits, and the firms executing the project will be relying on their own resources initially.

Urutchev, who is a former top executive of the only operational Bulgarian nuclear power plant at Kozloduy, said the question of whether Bulgaria needed the second nuclear plant under construction at Belene was not on the agenda because of the steep drop in electricity consumption in the country and in Europe as a whole.

“When the economy is revived and there is investor interest, the Belene NPP project will probably become a hot topic on the agenda. The interest in the consumption of this kind of electricity will probably rise in 10 years, not in 7-8 years as we earlier expected,” forecast the MEP from the European People’s Party and the Bulgarian rulers GERB.

At the beginning of September 2009, Bulgaria’s new government sealed a letter of approval for the construction of the hydro power project on the Arda river, known as Gorna Arda (“Upper Arda”).

This was a requirement for wrapping up of the sale of a 30,1% stake, owned by Turkey's CCG, part of the Ceylan conglomerate, to an Austrian consortium of EVN and Alpine Bau.

The move was made after a trial in the International Court of Arbitration, in which Ceylan Holding filed claims for EUR 75 M against the other member in the joint venture - Bulgaria's National Electric Company NEK, was suspended for three months.

The Turkish company was contracted to implement the project under an electricity-for-infrastructure swap deal Bulgaria and Turkey signed in 1998, during the term of the government of Ivan Kostov. The launch of the hydropower construction was delayed after the Turkish company ran into financial troubles.

The Gorna Arda hydropower project is expected to cost around EUR 500 M, which should be paid by the consortium. It is planned to have an electricity production capacity of 160 MW.

In the fall of 2009, Bulgaria’s Economy, Energy and Tourism Minister, Traicho Traikov, was cleared of any conflict of interests over the Gorna Arda hydropower project.

The Parliamentary Commission for combating corruption and conflict of interests investigated Traikov after he was reported to them by the Bulgarian Socialist Party in September. They found unequivocally that Traikov had not done anything wrong regarding the Gorna Arda project.

The reason was for the BSP signal was the decision of the Council of Ministers to approve the project investor for "Gorna Arda" company with the participation of Austrian EVN and Alpine. Before being appointed minister Traikov was procurator of the company EVN, but he was not part of the management bodies of the company. Traikov denied the conflict of interest reports because after his resignation from EVN his name was stricken from the trade register.

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