The Council of Ministers held an extraordinary meeting today, at which it approved amendments to the program for compensation of non-household end customers of electricity, adopted by the government on 26 October 2021. The changes aim to facilitate the implementation of the program and effective protection of all non-household electricity consumers from the free market due to high electricity prices.
The amendments allow the Minister of Energy to set in the standard contract concluded different dates with the suppliers for submission of applications, for obtaining the necessary information from the Electricity System Security Fund and for reimbursement of the compensation received from the suppliers to the non-domestic end users. The change is necessary due to the fact that different suppliers have different conditions and deadlines for providing invoices to their customers.
The changes in the compensation program also provide for the possibility for invoices on which compensation is due, but issued before the signing of the contract between the ME and the respective supplier, to be included in the compensation. For them, the supplier will be obliged to notify the customer of the compensation due to him, which will be provided by reducing subsequent payments by the customer.
During today’s extraordinary government meeting, the draft model contract was approved in connection with the implementation of the business compensation program due to rising electricity prices. By the same decision, the Council of Ministers instructed the Minister of Energy to conclude such contracts with electricity traders, suppliers of last resort, producers who sell directly to final non-residential customers and the operator of the organized electricity exchange market. Payments under the contracts will be made after receiving a positive opinion from the European Commission, is regulated by the decision of the Council of Ministers.
The conclusion of the contracts is necessary in order to practically implement the program for compensation of the business adopted by the government, which envisages all non-domestic end users to receive compensation in the amount of BGN 110 for each megawatt-hour of used electricity. This measure is expected to be valid for a period of two months - October and November, and the first compensations will be received by consumers together with their October electricity bills, which are due in November.
