The Supreme Administrative Prosecutor's Office has filed a complaint about the increases in electricity and heating prices, EWRC will answer all questions

The Supreme Administrative Prosecutor's Office (SAP) has filed a complaint about the increases for the prices of electricity and heating, and the EWRC will answer all the questions, the press center of the energy regulator announced.

The Energy and Water Regulatory Commission received a letter from the Supreme Administrative Prosecutor's Office, which filed a complaint on the occasion of publications in the media in connection with the increase in the prices of heat and electricity from July 1, 2021.

Within the legally established term, the Commission will answer to the Supreme Administrative Prosecutor's Office on all the questions, the regulator said in a statement to the media.

The Commission recalls that already during the public discussion of prices on 1 July 2021, the national ombudsman, who participated in the meeting online, made the same criticisms and suggestions.

In the reasons for the Price Decision of 1.07.2021, the EWRC responded in detail to each of the Ombudsman's arguments and rejected them as unfounded.

The statement that the consumers of thermal energy have credited the district heating companies with BGN 29 million is not true. These are data as of April this year. Until the end of the one-year price period, which expired at the end of June 2021, the price of natural gas showed a steep increase and reached almost BGN 50.00 / MWh, with a set annual estimated price of BGN 30.50 / MWh, for the previous regulatory period. The Ombudsman's opinion does not take into account the sharp increase in the price of carbon emissions from the set € 22.00 / ton to € 55.00 / ton, ie. over 2.5 times. The cumulative consideration of these two factors at the end of the regulatory period (the price of natural gas and the price of carbon emissions) shows that district heating companies not only have no excess revenues, but on the contrary - suffer losses due to shortfall, the regulator said.

The forecast price of natural gas set by the EWRC for the entire new one-year price period from July 1, 2021 is BGN 45.76 / MWh. It is significantly lower than the approved price of natural gas for July in the amount of BGN 49.94 / MWh, the announcement states.

The Commission also explains why the estimated annual price cannot be replaced by a monthly one.

The requested change in Ordinance №5 - the estimated annual price of heat to be replaced by a monthly price is inapplicable, because it means that on the first day of each month to be reported heat consumption of 400 thousand subscribers who have in their homes on several meters. Precisely taking this into account, the Energy Efficiency Act sets a deadline of January 1, 2027 for all consumers to have devices with remote reading, which will allow monthly measurement of heat consumption, explained by the EWRC.