Bulgaria will seek EUR 1.410 B under the Juncker Plan for energy projects, according to Energy Minister Temenuzhka Petkova.

Speaking Friday in Parliament, she responded to a question of socialist MP Krasimir Yankov about Bulgaria’s proposals for Juncker plan funding in the sphere of energy.

She informed that the first list of projects, which had been published in December 2014, had only included electricity projects.

Petkova explained that in January 2015 Bulgaria had taken advantage of the opportunity to add new proposals to the list, with the Energy Ministry proposing six crucial gas projects, including the Bulgaria-Greece gas grid interconnection, the expansion of the Chiren underground gas storage, the modernization and rehabilitation of the national gas transmission grid, the Bulgaria-Turkey gas grid interconnection, the construction of a second gas storage facility, and the Bulgaria-Serbia gas grid interconnection.

She noted that the updated list of projects also included two electricity projects, namely the expansion of the Chaira Pumped-Storage Hydropower Plant with the Yadenitsa Dam and the modernization and rehabilitation of substations of the national electricity system.

Bulgaria’s Energy Minister underscored that a large part of these projects had been recognized by the European Commission as projects of common interest.

She reminded that the guaranteeing the security of gas supplies to Bulgaria and the EU through the diversification of both the sources and delivery routes of energy was a key priority of the Bulgarian government.

Citing Energy Ministry calculations, she informed that the 6 gas projects seeking Juncker plan funding had been estimated at EUR 764 M, while the two electricity projects were to cost EUR 646 M, meaning that the total stood at EUR 1.410 B.