Sat, May 26 2012

Bulgaria halts electricity exports after power plant accident

Fri, Feb 10 2012 11:16 CET

byThe Sofia Echo staff

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Bulgaria halts electricity exports after power plant accident

 
Photo: Assen Tonev

The continuing cold snap and an accident at the AES Gulubovo thermal power plant prompted Bulgaria's Economy Ministry to halt all electricity exports starting 1am on February 10, the ministry said in a statement.

Despite activating all electricity-generating facilities, including power plants that are normally mothballed and only used in cases of emergency, the country was facing a shortfall of about 400MW of electricity every hour, the statement said.

However, there was no risk of blackouts caused by insufficient power supply, Economy Minister Traicho Traikov told Bulgarian National Radio.

Traikov said that exports had been temporarily suspended, "for a day or two", to allow the accumulation of electricity reserves and relieve some of the pressure on the power transmission grid, he said.

There were no further details available on the accident at the Gulubovo plant in central Bulgaria, owned by US energy firm AES.

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