SOFIA: Bulgaria's state energy regulator cut electricity prices for households and industrial consumers as of Jan. 1 in an attempt by the ruling Socialists to reduce the burden of power costs.
The cut, announced on Monday, follows two reductions this year.
The changes were approved after the regulator introduced a new price methodology, which also aims to encourage cross border power sales from Bulgaria, the European Union's poorest member, by halving the export tariff.
The night tariff for households was cut by around 10 percent, while the daytime tariff dropped by an average of one percent. Electricity prices for industrial consumers were reduced by 1.5 percent.
The export tariff dropped to 6.91 levs ($4.88) a megawatt hour from 12.47 levs/MWh.
The three power distributors in the Balkan country Czech company CEZ, Energo-Pro and Austria's EVN , opposed the latest cuts as the regulator reduced the amount the amount they can charge clients to make up for electricity lost during transmission over the grid.
The regulator cut the margin for these "technological losses" from 12 to 10 percent of revenues. The money is meant to be used for investment in grid maintenance and upgrades.
In March, the regulator cut the electricity costs for households by an average of 7 percent following mass protests over high utility bills and poverty that toppled the government of the centre-right GERB party a month earlier.
In July, the regulator cut the costs by an average of 5 percent in a move that businesses said would worsen the already poor capital state of power producers and distributors.
Electricity prices are politically sensitive in Bulgaria since power bills account for much of monthly incomes, especially in winter.
"We would like to stimulate the night electricity consumption and create more favourable conditions for business," the regulator's chairman Boyan Boev told local news media.
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