Power Distributor Energo-Pro Files Arbitration Claim against Bulgaria over Electricity Prices

Czech company Energo-Pro, which supplies electricity to northeastern Bulgaria, has filed an arbitration claim against Bulgaria at the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID).

The arbitration claim was filed on May 26, 2015.

The ICSID has not yet designated a panel of arbitrators to handle the claim.

The plans of the power distributor to resort to that step date back to 2013, when the company opposed a decision of the Commission for Energy and Water Regulation (KEVR) from March 2013 on electricity prices.

In 2013 Austrian EVN, which supplies electricity to southeastern Bulgaria, initiated an arbitration claim against Bulgaria for similar reasons, according to Capital Daily.

The company seeks EUR 600 M, claiming that it suffered losses due to legal amendments and regulatory decisions in the energy sector in the period 2004-2014.

Apart from that, Russia’s Atomstroyexport has filed a EUR 1 B claim against Bulgaria’s state-owned power utility, the National Electric Company (NEK) at the at the International Court of Arbitration in Paris due to the decision of the Bulgarian government to cancel the Belene nuclear power plant project.

Energo-Pro argues that the decision of the energy watchdog on electricity prices generated a huge deficit at its subsidiaries in Bulgaria – Energo-Pro Sales and Enero-Pro Grid.

Energo-Pro claims that the energy watchdog did not recognize power grid rehabilitation expenditures made in 2012.

The power distributor also complains about uncompensated renewable energy costs amounting to BGN 46 M by June 30.

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