Bulgaria’s Maritsa 3 TPP will be Temporary Closed

The authorities will temporarily close Maritsa 3 TPP due to a series of violations of environmental norms. The last excesses of the permitted levels of sulfur dioxide were registered days ago.

At a briefing, the acting ministers of energy, Rosen Hristov, and the acting minister of environment and water, Rositsa Karamfilova, stated that, in addition to the risk to the health of the population, the frequent violations of environmental norms by TPP Maritsa 3 put at risk the functioning of the entire electricity system in Bulgaria and can even lead to the shutdown of the large installations in the Maritsa basin.

The coal plants in our country operate thanks to a derogation from the EC, which allows 3 average night-time exceedances of the norms and 24 average hourly ones. In the period from Friday to Saturday, TPP Maritsa 3 performed 8 average hourly overruns out of 24 allowed in total for all plants in our country. With the registered pollution from TPP Maritsa 3, Bulgaria has already reached the allowed 3 average day and night exceedances of the norms and has 23 average hourly ones. Meanwhile, two criminal procedures are being conducted against our country for air quality - for the high level of fine dust particles and for high levels of sulfur dioxide.

"We are now at 23 average hourly exceedances of the norms, and there are still 3 months until the end of the year. With two more violations, this derogation will be canceled, which would lead to the closure of all coal-fired power plants in the country. This will turn Bulgaria from a net exporter of electricity in a net importer. Maritsa 3 TPP capacity, at the same time, is insignificant, and installations in the Maritsa basin are critical for the entire energy system. And with 2 more...

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