Chair of Bulgaria's Energy Watchdog Hints at Power Rate Reduction

Yuliana Ivanova, newly appointed Chair of Bulgaria's State Commission for Energy and Water Regulation (DKEVR), has suggested that electricity prices could drop.

Speaking Friday in an interview for bTV, she made clear that she had set up a committee tasked with reviewing all components of electricity prices in a bid to reduce power tariffs.

Ivanova noted that the tariff reduction would apply to actually consumed electricity.

The new Chair of Bulgaria's energy watchdog refused to commit to a concrete forecast but was adamant that certain components included in electricity prices could be reduced or changed.

As regards information that she was selling cigarettes illegally , she explained that it had not been the main activity of her online store.

The DKEVR Chair said that she did not intend to resign, adding that she would leave the post if asked to do so.

"I plan to concentrate on the real work now" she stated.

Regarding electricity thefts , she informed that a total of 15% of the electricity output was unaccounted for, or the so-called technical losses.

Ivanova made clear that technical losses amounted to 10-15% of the total in other countries.

The DKEVR Chair said that she had received an electricity bill for BGN 180, adding that her bills had been high for several months in a row, causing her to doubt that some of her neighbors were stealing electricity from her.

She said that the December spike in power bills, which caused thousands of Bulgarians in a number of cities to stage a series of protests, was due to the fact that most of the people had stayed at home and consumed more electricity during the holidays.

The head of Bulgaria's energy watchdog vowed to check each investments in order to prevent fraud and assured that she had never met energy mafia bosses and could not say whether there energy mafia existed in the country.