Bulgaria's Kozloduy NPP Cannot Export Electricity to Turkey - CEO

Ivan Genov, CEO of Bulgaria's Kozloduy nuclear power plant, has said that it cannot export electricity to Turkey.

In a Sunday interview for the Bulgarian National Radio (BNR), he explained that unit 5 of the N-plant was undergoing a planned annual overhaul and only unit 6 was operational.

"We have signed contracts on the free market by end-June, the end of the regulatory period, and the quantities which remain are an obligation of the Kozloduy NPP to the public supplier, the National Electric Company (NEK). The only entity to which we can sell electricity at the moment is NEK, which are sales on the regulated market," Genov noted.

"We are not entitled to sign direct contracts for electricity exports. We organize tenders through which we sell electricity to traders and the Electricity System Operator provides information about whether it is sold on the domestic market or on foreign markets. This is a requirement of the European Union – to not divide tenders into ones for the domestic market and ones for the foreign markets. We have no option of selling electricity to Turkey directly," Genov emphasized.

The CEO of the Kozloduy NPP also provided information about the progress of the project for the extension of the life of units 5 and 6 of the N-plant.

"Bulgaria currently has no other option of maintaining its nuclear energy than extending the life of units 5 and 6 of the Kozloduy NPP. It would be absurd to waste the opportunity of securing another 30 years of exploitation of the two N-plant units, which are selling the cheapest electricity in Bulgaria, at a low price. At the current pace of work, we should be ready to receive a license for another 10 years of exploitation of unit 5 by 2017. By 2021, this will also happen for unit 6," Genov made clear.

He specified that the Kozloduy NPP had registered a profit of BGN 42 M in 2013 and Q1, 2014 had ended at a profit of BGN 64 M.

He said that talks with US Westinghouse on the construction of unit 7 of the Kozloduy NPP were still underway and the contract for the first stage of the project was to be signed by September, provided that things proceeded normally and the financial terms were acceptable.

Asked to comment on the heated debate surrounding the South Stream gas pipeline project, Genov was adamant that the conduit had to be built.

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