Parliament adopted changes to the Energy Act at second reading

The Parliament adopted at second reading amendments to the Energy Act, allowing gas consumers to install at their own expense a device that will count the consumed quantities of blue fuel, converting cubic meters into calories.

Energy Committee chairman, Delyan Dobrev, explained the reasoning behind the amendment, arguing that the metering is currently inaccurate and allows Bulgargas and Bulgartransgaz to sneak charges into the bills and overcharge the customers.

"With the changes we give the opportunity to businesses and consumers of natural gas, who doubt that they were overcharged, to buy a meter, which will be sealed by metrology and which will measure the calorific value of gas on the principle of electricity meters. The bills will be drawn up based on the readings from this meter. We are not obliging anyone to install this gas chromatograph. We are not spending public resources and we are not putting the burden on Bulgartransgaz to buy these instruments. Nobody will buy chromatographs if they do not want to. They will be bought by customers if they think they are overcharged or the bill is higher than normal. You buy it at your own expense, install it and then transfer it to the supplier," Delyan Dobrev said.

He explained that the metering devices cost between 60 and 80 thousand euros, and the big customers will benefit from them.

"The Sofia district heating company estimates that their loss is BGN 8 million per year from incorrect accounting of the consumed natural gas. And now, with these devices, they will have the real gas consumption measured", said Delyan Dobrev.