Mon 03 Dec 2007 - Rene Beekman, SOFIA ECHO
Kozloduy nuclear power plant (NPP) sold close to 530 megawatts electricity on the free market, of which only 80 megawatts went to the National Electricity Company (NEC).
This announced Ivan Genov, managing director of the NPP, Pari daily said.
The remaining 440 megawatts were sold directly to nine distributors and 13 companies by Kozloduy NPP.
These companies had a strong advantage over those who bought electricity from NEC at much higher prices, Genov said.
If in 2008 the amount to be sold to end-users would have to increase, less would be available for companies to buy directly from the NPP, Genov said.
The NPP would try to export electricity directly, even in small amounts, starting in 2008. Currently, sales abroad were done only through NEC, with export for 2007 reaching 2 billion kilowatt.Annual production of the Kozloduy NPP for 2007 was expected to reach 14 billion kilowatt against 19.5 billion a year earlier.
Next year a new price would have to be negotiated for nuclear fuel, which the NPP buys from Russian TVEL. The new price was expected to be much higher, as prices for uranium increased drastically over the past few years. This would however, have no effect on the price of electricity produced by the NPP, Genov said.