At the National Conference “Compass 2025” held in Sofia, representatives of the executive branch and leading experts united around the conclusion that coal-fired power plants are critically important for energy security.
Energy Minister Zhecho Stankov warned that the hasty closure of coal-fired power plants could lead to serious risks for our energy sovereignty and economy.
“I want to responsibly state here before you, and I am sure that my colleagues, former energy ministers, will support me, that currently without our thermal power plants, our energy system would be extremely vulnerable,” he said.
According to data from the Electricity System Operator for the past year, over 27% of the country’s energy came from coal-fired regions. The minister emphasized that this clearly shows their importance.
According to the Minister, in recent years, political exploitation of the topic has often been observed, which instead of solutions only creates fears among the 40 thousand indirectly employed in the three coal regions of the country.
He emphasized that the possible closing of the plants without an alternative would be catastrophic.
“Every year in October or November, all coal-fired power plants producing electricity or all coal-fired district heating plants would be stopped, which would lead to the collapse of the Bulgarian energy sector, a block-out and the possibility of being extremely vulnerable economically.” said Minister Stankov
Minister Stankov made a categorical statement that “as of today, not only is there no need to gradually close our coal-fired power plants, but we also have a legal basis for this not to happen.”
The same thesis was defended by energy expert and entrepreneur Hristo Kovachki with indisputable arguments.
He briefly outlined the main capacities in our country, namely: 2,000 MW of nuclear power, 4,400 MW of coal power, about 200 MW of gas power and 3,500 MW of solar power.
“In winter, the load is about 8,000 MW and without thermal power plants we are doomed to have problems with the energy system.” Hristo Kovachki stated.
In his words, green energy from renewable energy sources cannot solve the problems.
Vice President Iliyana Yotova reinforced the feeling of unanimity of the institutions, indicating that the big topic is the future of thermal power plants and what percentage of energy we will receive from them.