Electricity a hot-button issue in Bulgaria this winter
Electricity distribution companies in Bulgaria are conducting campaigns to help customers whose power consumption is significantly higher with the onset of winter, to use electricity more efficiently.
In Bulgaria, an aggravating factor in electricity consumption is that, at 40 per cent, the proportion of electricity bills that results from domestic heating is notably higher than the 24 per cent average for the European Union.
High electricity bills are a particularly sensitive issue against the background of these having been used to mobilise people against the government of the time in the “cost-of-living” street protests of February 2013.
Since then, the Bulgarian Socialist Party government that took power after the May early parliamentary elections has attempted some tinkering with the system to try to reduce electricity prices for end-users.
Against a background of a new poll by agency Market Links showing further growing support for demands for the resignation of the BSP government, cost-of-living issues, and the risk that electricity bills could again infuriate consumers, could be a key factor in determining how long the current government can hold out against popular demands for it to go.
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(Photo: greenhitma/sxc.hu)
