Bulgarian Power Relations: The Making of a Balkan Power Hub

Abstract

In early 1983, Todor Bozhinov is appointed as the new Bulgarian minister of the electric power industry. Eager to demonstrate his professional managerial capacities, he introduces a number of economic and organizational changes. These have recently been discussed in the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON), and are aimed at increasing the productivity and efficiency of member states’ power systems. Some of the measures directly affect the reliability of electricity supply. For instance, the customary summer maintenance and repair works, during which many generating units lie idle, are to be drastically reduced. Also, two full months of coal emergency reserves are to be cut to the equivalent of two weeks, thus freeing significant financial and material resources. About a third of the Bulgarian coal supply comes from Soviet Ukraine via Black Seaports, but this supply line seems quite reliable.