National Statistical Institute of Bulgaria

Environmental and Energy Accounts Department

National Statistical Institute
2, P. Volov Str.; 1038 Sofia, Bulgaria

European statistics on electricity prices for household and final non-household customers.

Internal Eurostat classification system based on annual electricity consumption bands and tax levels.

Household sector and final non-household sector (industry, services, offices, agriculture, etc).

The prices are reported in national currency (BGN) per kWh and according to standard bands of annual consumption.

For the household customers, the following bands are applied:

• DA: customers consuming less than 1000 kWh.
• DB: customers consuming 1000 kWh or more but less than 2500 kWh.
• DC: customers consuming 2500 kWh or more but less than 5000 kWh.
• DD: customers consuming 5000 kWh or more but less than 15000 kWh.
• DE: customers consuming 15000 kWh or more.

For the final non-household customers, the following bands are aaplied:

• IA: customers consuming less than 20 MWh.
• IB: customers consuming 20 MWh or more but less than 500 MWh.
• IC: customers consuming 500 MWh or more but less than 2000 MWh.
• ID: customers consuming 2000 MWh or more but less than 20000 MWh.
• IE: customers consuming 20000 MWh or more but less than 70000 MWh.
• IF: customers consuming 70000 MWh or more but less than 150000 MWh.
• IG: customers consuming 150000 MWh or more.

Two different levels of disagregation for semestrial and annual prices exist:

1- Semestrial prices:

These prices are reported twice a year and are divided in 3 levels:

• Level 1 prices: prices excluding taxes and levies.
• Level 2 prices: prices excluding VAT and other recoverable taxes and levies.
• Level 3 prices: prices including all taxes and levies.

2- Annual prices:

These prices are reported once a year together with the data for the second semester and are divided into the following components and taxes:

• Component Energy and supply: generation, aggregation, balancing energy, supplied energy costs, customer services, after-sales management and other supply costs.
• Component Network cost: transmission and distribution tariffs, transmission and distribution losses, network costs, after-sale service costs, system service costs, and meter rental and metering costs. The average annual network cost for all consumption bands is split into the respective shares of transmission and distribution, calculated using the relative share of consumption in the different consumption bands. This way is calculated the single national electricity prices (weighted averages for consumption bands IA-IG and DA-DE) which are published only by Eurostat.
• Component Taxes:
• Value added taxes (VAT): as defined in Council Directive 2006/112/EC.
• Renewable taxes: taxes, fees, levies or charges relating to the promotion of renewable energy sources, energy efficiency and CHP generation.
• Capacity taxes: Taxes, fees, levies or charges relating to capacity payments, energy security and generation adequacy; taxes on coal industry restructuring; taxes on electricity distribution; stranded costs and levies on financing energy regulatory authorities or market and system operators.
• Environmental taxes: taxes, fees, levies or charges relating to air quality and for other environmental purposes; taxes on emissions of CO₂ or other greenhouse gases. This component includes the excise duties.
• Nuclear taxes: taxes, fees, levies or charges relating to the nuclear sector, including nuclear decommissioning, inspections and fees for nuclear installations.
• All other taxes: taxes, fees, levies or charges not covered by any of the previous five categories: support for district heating; local or regional fiscal charges; island compensation; concession fees relating to licences and fees for the occupation of land and public or private property by networks or other devices.

Obligations to society - Remarks on electricity Prices for non-household and household customers:

Until the 2-nd semester of 2020 incl., due to the specifics of the electricity market in Bulgaria - liberalizied and regulated for non-household customers and fully regulated for household customers, the component Energy and supply for both types of customers included the price for "Obligations to society" (POS), determined by decisions of the Energy and Water Regulatory Commission. Respectively, the POS was reffered to the level 1 prices. From the 1st semester of 2021, with the full liberalization of the electricity market for non-household customers, the POS for non-household customers has been already referred to the component Taxes, other payments, levies and fees and respectively has been moved to the level 2 prices. The POS for household customers remains to be part of the component Energy and supply. In the 2021 annual price reporting, the POS disaggregation for the final non-household customers by price sub-components has been as follows:

• “Promotion of renewable taxes “– include the components of the POS, respectively reflecting the costs for electricity produced from renewable sources and the costs for electricity produced from high-efficiency cogeneration are included,
• “Capacity taxes” -  include the POS component reflecting the non-recoverable costs of electricity purchase agreements and the critical infrastructure component,
• “All other taxes, fees, levies and charges” - the component revenues from the Electricity System Security Fund to reduce the POS.

State subsidies - Remarks on Electricity Prices data for non-household customers for 2^nd semester of 2021 and Components for 2021:

In the last quarter of 2021, in response to the increased prices on the liberalized electricity market, the government has approved a program to compensate the final non-household customers.This affected the 2nd semester prices reporting for non-household customers and will affect the next reporting for the 1st semester of 2022. The program envisages a temporary mechanism to support non-household customers through electricity suppliers in the form of a monthly compensation, calculated for each individual customer. The compensations are fixed price for MWh without VAT for each of the months – October, November and December. They are deducted from the total final price after VAT has been charged on each monthly invoice.

Electricity non-households price reporting of 2^nd semester of 2021 - The compensations are included in the level 3 prices with a negative value after the VAT charging.

Electricity non-households price reporting of  Components of 2021 - The compensation are reported on an annual basis under the component Taxes -  All other taxes.

Household and final non-household customers divided into consumption bands.

The target population are household and final non-household customers buying electricity for their own use.

Household customers:

2021_2 semester - Data are reporting by 29 retailers out of 54 plus 5 network operators and representing 100% of the household customers. Other 25 retailers do not supply electricity to household customers.

2021_1 semester - Data are reporting by 29 retailers out of 53 plus 5 network operators and representing 100% of the household customers. Other 24 retailers do not supply electricity to household customers.

2020_2 semester - Data are reporting by 26 retailers out of 52 plus 5 network operators and representing 100% of the household customers. Other 26 retailers do not supply electricity to household customers.

2020_1 semester - Data are reporting by 25 retailers out of 51 plus 5 network operators and representing 100% of the household customers. Other 26 retailers do not supply electricity to household customers.

2019_2 semester - Data are reporting by 27 retailers out of 50 plus 5 network operators and representing 100% of the household customers. Other 23 retailers do not supply electricity to household customers.

2019_1 semester - Data are reporting by 29 retailers out of 52 plus 5 network operators and representing 100% of the household customers. Other 25 retailers do not supply electricity to household customers.

Final non-household customers:

2021_2 semester - Data are reporting by 48 retailers out of 51 plus 5 network operators and representing 100% of the final non-household customers. There are 3 retailers which supply electricity only to household customers.

2021_1 semester - Data are reporting by 50 retailers out of 53 plus 5 network operators and representing 100% of the final non-household customers. There are 3 retailers which supply electricity only to household customers.

2020_2 semester - Data are reporting by 52 retailers out of 52 plus 5 network operators and representing 100% of the final non-household customers. 

2020_1 semester - Data are reporting by 51 retailers out of 51 plus 5 network operators and representing 100% of the final non-household customers. 

2019_2 semester - Data are reporting by 50 retailers out of 50 plus 5 network operators and representing 100% of the final non-household customers. 

2020_1 semester - Data are reporting by 52 retailers out of 52 plus 5 network operators and representing 100% of the final non-household customers. 

The national territory of the Republic of Bulgaria.

Electricity prices data for Bulgaria are available since 2007.

Not applicable.

Prices are reported in national currency (BGN) per kWh. However, Eurostat also calculates and publishes the prices in EURO and PPS (Purchasing Power Standard).
Relative shares of sub-component of the network component and consumption volumes are reported in percentages.

For semestrial prices, the reference periods are January - June for semester 1 and July - December for semester 2.

For annual prices, the reference period is the whole calendar year (January - December).

At EU level:

• Regulation (EU) 2016/1952 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 October 2016 on European statistics on natural gas and electricity prices and repealing Directive 2008/92/EC (Text with EEA relevance) - https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2016/1952/oj
• Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2017/2169 of 21 November 2017 concerning the format and arrangements for the transmission of European Statistics on natural gas and electricity prices pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2016/1952 of the European Parliament and of the Council (Text with EEA relevance) - https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32017R2169
• Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2018/1734 of 14 November 2018 granting derogations to the Federal Republic of Germany, the Kingdom of Spain, the Italian Republic and the Republic of Cyprus as regards the provision of statistics pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2016/1952 of the European Parliament and of the Council (notified under document C(2018) 7465) (Text with EEA relevance) - https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32018D1734
• Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/803 of 17 May 2019 concerning the content of quality reports on European statistics on natural gas and electricity prices pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2016/1952 of the European Parliament and of the Council (Text with EEA relevance) - https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32019R0803

At National level:

• No legal acts and other agreements at national level.

At EU level:

• Eurostat does not share the data collected with other organisation appart from its usual dissemination chanel (Eurostat's database, statistic explained articles and press or news release).

At national level:

• Data is submitted to Eurostat.

At EU level:

• Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council, of 11 March 2009, on the transmission of data subject to statistical confidentiality to the Statistical Office of the European Communities.

At national level:

• Law on Statistics of Bulgaria - http://www.nsi.bg/en/node/553/basic-page/law-statistics - Confidentiality of statistical data is defined in Chapter Six PROTECTION OF SECRECY (Heading amended, SG No. 81/2005).

Published data do not allow identification of single customers.

Individual data on prices are not published (they are suppressed), following Art. 25 of the Law on Statistics. Publishing of individual data is made under Art. 26 of the Law on Statistics.

The date for publication of statistical information on prices is listed in the Release Calendar presenting the results of the statistical surveys carried out by the National Statistical Institute. Data on electricity prices for household and final non-household customers is published three months after the reporting period.

 http://www.nsi.bg/en/node/44/basic-page/release-calendar

According to Article 23 of the Law on statistics of Bulgaria "The National Statistical Institute and statistical authorities shall announce to the public the results from the statistical surveys through the mass media, their websites, in own publications or by other means, in compliance with the provisions of Chapter Six" for all users at the same time.

Electricity prices in Bulgaria are published twice per year at the NSI website (section Statistical data, theme Energy), in Information system "Infostat" and at Eurostat's website.

No national press release related to the data.

No other national publications related to the data.

Online information system "Infostat" at the NSI website:

https://infostat.nsi.bg/

No national database related to the number of consultations of these data.

NSI of Bulgaria does not give access to microdata related to electricity prices.

Information service upon request according to the Rules for dissemination of statistical products and services, published at the following link:

https://nsi.bg/en/content/564/basic-page/rules-dissemination-statistical-products-and-services

Not applicable.

Methodology and metadata files are available at the NSI website, section Energy:

 Electricity prices metadata - https://nsi.bg/en/node/4172

Electricity prices_nonHouseholds methodology - https://nsi.bg/en/node/4174

Electricity prices_Households methodology - https://nsi.bg/en/node/4177

0.9

The latest quality report 2018 on the Electricity and Natural Gas prices (for reporting years 2016, 2017 and 2018) is published on the NSI's website - section Statisitical data, theme Energy:

https://www.nsi.bg/en/content/4172/electricity-and-natural-gas-prices

NSI has developed and implemented Quality Management System (QMS) according to the international standard ISO 9001:2008 since 2015. After several successful certification audits made, NSI is currently certified with ISO 9001:2015 and ISO/IEC 27001:2013.

https://nsi.bg/sites/default/files/files/images/Sertificat_ISO_9001.pdf

https://www.nsi.bg/sites/default/files/files/images/Sertificat_ISO_27001.pdf

Implementation of the QMS includes: Regulation for QMS, Ordinance for the activity of Quality Council, Procedures, Programme for achieving aims regarding quality, Programme for the activity of Quality Council, Training on QMS, Reports, Audit.

The NSS Quality Assurance framework includes methods and tools that aim to guarantee the compliance with the requirements to the statistical processes and products, and to ensure the required statistical information quality:

https://www.nsi.bg/en/content/471/basic-page/quality

Data are with good quality.

 No information available for users of these data axactly, as they have free access to the NSI website.

No user satisfaction survey has been carried out for this dataset.

Data fully meet the requirements of the Regulation (EU) 2016/1952 - in terms of Annex II.

The ratio of the number of data cells provided to the number of data cells required:

Table 1: 100%

Table 2: 100%

Table 3: 100%

Table 4: 100%

Data are reliable, the accuracy is good. Electricity prices data are verified for each supplier. The comparative analyses are made with the data for previous periods. Electricity prices data are verified with the desicions of Energy and Water Regulatory Commission, determining  prices of the final suppliers, operated at the regulated electricity market and of the network operators.

No sampling used as the data covers 100% of the population.

Not applicable.

Information is included in the sub-concepts S.13.3.1-S.13.3.5.

As 100% of the population is covered, all kinds of unit are represented.

There no over-coverage in the data.

100% of the data come from the survey.

The responding units and statistical experts are not exempted automatically from errors in reading, calculating and recording the numerical values. As the Excel questionnaire and summary files are not automated, these errors are verified and corrected manually.

0%.

The unit non-response rate is 0%.

The item non-response rate is 0%.

Electricity price questionnaire for collecting primary data from the suppliers (retailers and network operators) is Excel formatted. At national level we aggregate manually all data in Summary Excel file where national data (previously checked and verified) are calculated by formulas and that is why no processing errors occurred. We do not use specific tool and calculations are not automated.

Not Applicable.

Electricity providers that participate in the national data collection are requested to provide the electricity prices data within one month after the reference period. Because of the difficulties met by the respondents in the electricity price reporting, for the 2nd semester of 2021 the deadline to submit the data has been changed to 45 days after the reference period. After submission, NSI experts check the micro-data for correctness, consistency and completeness. National averages are calculated and reported to Eurostat during the third month after the reference period. 

The first version of the electricity price questionnaire for households for the 1st semester of 2019 was sent 89 days after the reference period.

The first version of the electricity price questionnaire for households for the 2nd semester of 2019 was sent 90 days after the reference period.

The first version of the electricity price questionnaire for households for the 1st semester of 2020 was sent 91 days after the reference period.

The first version of the electricity price questionnaire for households for the 2nd semester of 2020 was sent 89 days after the reference period.

The first version of the electricity price questionnaire for households for the 1st semester of 2021 was sent 91 days after the reference period.

The first version of the electricity price questionnaire for households for the 2nd semester of 2021 was sent 90 days after the reference period.

The first version of the electricity price questionnaire for non-households for the 1st semester of 2019 was sent 89 days after the reference period.

The first version of the electricity price questionnaire for non-households for the 2nd semester of 2019 was sent 90 days after the reference period.

The first version of the electricity price questionnaire for non-households for the 1st semester of 2020 was sent 91 days after the reference period.

The first version of the electricity price questionnaire for non-households for the 2nd semester of 2020 was sent 89 days after the reference period.

The first version of the electricity price questionnaire for non-households for the 1st semester of 2021 was sent 91 days after the reference period.

The first version of the electricity price questionnaire for non-households for the 2nd semester of 2021 was sent 90 days after the reference period.

For the 2021, 2020 and 2019 prices data cycles the time lag - final results coincides with the time lag - first results.

The legal deadline for submitting the questionnaires is the third month after the reference period.

60 days between the delivery/release date of data

Target date on which data is scheduled for delivery/release:

1^st semester - 30th July/30th September

2^nd semester - 30th January/30th March

Data are representative at national level and fully correspond with the requirements of the Regulation (EU) 2016/1952.

Not applicable

Data has been comparable since the 1st semester of 2017.

No break in time series.

Not applicable

Not applicable

Not applicable

Annual prices are coherent with the semestrial prices.

The amount of costs for Electricity price survey is estimated to:

2019 - 2993 EUR

2020 - 9178 EUR

2021 - 9893 EUR

No specific survey on the burden of respondents.

No revision policy is established for the organisation regarding these data.  

No planned revisions of data. Unplanned revisions are made in case of detecting different types of errors - technical errors, discrepancies with previous periods.

No data revisions on electricity prices to final customers for the reference periods: 2021, 2020 and 2019.

Households electricity prices collection: 0

Non-households electricity prices collection: 0.

Prices datais  provided by the electricity retailers and network operators.

Biannual for the periods January - June and July - December.

Survey is mandatory according to the annual National Statistical Programme. Data are collected using Excel questionnaire by email.

Procedures include:

• verification of the coverage of the respondents at regional and national levels;
• comparison of data with ones for previous periods.
• verification with the decisions of Energy and Water Regulatory Commission, determining electricity prices of the final suppliers, operated at the regulated electricity market and of the network operators.

Prices are calculated as a weighted average prices using Excel. For the purpose the actual supplied quantity of electricity and its invoiced value from each supplier by type of final customers and by consumption band are used.

No imputations are performed related to the data.

No adjustments carried out.

Seasonable adjustments are not carried out.