Small Share of Consumers Use Large Amounts of Electricity and Prices Should not Be Kept Low because of Them - Institute for Market Economics

Sofia, June 15 (BTA) - A small share of consumers, mostly those
using electricity for heating, use a large part of electric
energy in Bulgaria and prices are kept artificially low because
of them, which discourages investments in energy efficiency,
encourages higher electricity consumption and makes future price
 increases next to impossible, the Institute for Market
Economics (IME) concludes after conducting a study among
households connected to EVN Bulgaria Elektrorazpredelenie 's
grid between 2009 and 2014, the analysis of which was released
by Kaloyan Staykov of IME. 

According to the Institute, maintaining artificially low
electricity prices for households is traditionally attributed to
 the price's "social affordability", however, objective
arguments supporting this are missing. In addition to the price
of electricity, households' bills also depend on their
consumption, Staykov noted, adding that in the 2009-2014 period,
 85 per cent of households were low and average consumers (up to
 500 kWh a month) and consumed 61 per cent of the electricity.
The share of high-consumer households (over 500 kWh a month) is
around 15 per cent and they consume around 39 per cent of the
electricity. Around 15 per cent of households consume some 50
per cent of electric energy in November, while in January 32 per
 cent of households consume over 70 per cent of electricity, the
 data show.

The survey further reveals that the share of households which
consume between 501 and 1,000 kWh in January is 15.8 percentage
points higher compared to June, while the increase among those
consuming over 1,000 kWh is close to 9.8 percentage points. As a
 result of the drop in temperature in the winter season, a total
 of 25.7 per cent of households move from the low- and average-
consumer group to the high- consumer group. It is not
necessarily the case that all those 25 per cent of households
have difficulties paying their electricity bills, Staykov said.

Fighting poverty and assisting society's vulnerable groups is
not part of the Electricity and Water Regulatory Commission's
competence and obligations. According to IME, this should be a
priority of the Labour and Social Policy Ministry.