Funds will be provided by Bulgaria’s National Electricity Company, NEK, for replacements and maintenance of high-risk electricity supply facilities, the Economy, Energy and Tourism Ministry said, after large-scale power failures that left residents and tourist resorts along the Black Sea coast without electricity for several hours.
 
A major reason for the power failures was the 110-kilovolt Galatea power line that went down on the evening of July 22 2010. This line was reconnected to the grid on the afternoon of July 24.
 
Local news agency Focus reported the Union of Owners in Sunny Beach resort as saying that tourists would not be paid compensation because this was not required by law, as the situation had been beyond the control of tour operators and managers of hotels and places of accommodation.
 
Media reports said that hotels had lost thousands of leva in lost custom from visitors who went elsewhere because of the power cut, and it was possible some tour operators could sue hotels.
 
Daily Dnevnik said that there was a lack of alternative routes of supply in the NEK network and a lack of sufficient powerful spare generators. The Union of Owners of Sunny Beach said that there were just enough spare generators to power the most pressingly-needed facilities such as lifts and freezers.
 
Economy, Energy and Tourism Minister Traicho Traikov said that NEK had put money into projects like the Belene nuclear power project but had not invested sufficient resources in the power supply network.