Balgarianovinite.com A meeting on Monday discussed measures to address complaints about high household electricity bills for December and January, which triggered protests in several major cities, alongside demands for compensation.
It was hosted by the Ombudsman and was attended by ministers, representatives of state institutions, electricity distribution companies and consumer organizations.
The Ombudsman
Opening the meeting Ombudsman Velislava Delcheva said that a total of 800 complaints over increased electricity bills have been submitted to her office. According to her, citizens have raised concerns about the lack of an option for paying by installments of high bills.
The cabinet
Economy and Industry Minister Irina Shtonova said that the fact that thousands of citizens are filing complaints about inflated electricity bills indicates that there is a problem. The Minister demanded transparency and called for an analysis to determine whether there has ever been such a sharp spike in consumption in the past, and to consider why, if the temperature fluctuations during the winter months were so significant, many people’s bills have not changed.
Energy Minister Traicho Traikov said that lawmakers have “lightly discarded” an opportunity that could have brought substantial investments into the energy sector, leading to improved efficiency across the system and more affordable prices. He was referring to Thursday’s decision of Parliament to ban him from making structural changes to companies within the Bulgarian Energy Holding, which were linked to payments under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan. Traikov said that each case should be examined individually as alongside legitimate concerns, many submitted complaints actually involve lower bills
The watchdog organizations
Energy and Water Regulatory Commission Chair Plamen Mladenovski said that the commission is working on 6,548 complaints about high electricity bills. 3,707 of those complaints have already been processed, including some cases initiated by the regulator itself in response to social media posts.
The Commission for Consumer Protection (CPC) found unfair commercial practices in the handling of complaints over electricity bills by the country’s three power supply companies, CPC Chair Alexander Kolyachev said. He also said the regulator had found unfair clauses in the companies’ general terms and conditions.
The power companies
Of 4,000 complaints over high electricity bills reviewed so far, 38 have been found to be justified, Plamen Stefanov, Chair of the Management Board of Energo-Pro Sales AD.
He noted that the company has received a total of 5,326 complaints to date.
He said that higher electricity bills are mainly due to lower temperatures, increased consumption and a greater number of non-working days compared with the previous year. Stefanov also pointed to a trend of rising electricity consumption in recent years, noting that usage has been increasing by between 2% and 3% annually as more consumers switch to electric heating.
Complaints have been filed for 0.2% of all invoices issued by Electrohold, the company’s manager, Zornitsa Genova, said. Genova noted that the scale of complaints is not as large as claimed.
She said that 273 complaints about high bills were submitted in January 2025, compared to 251 in January this year. Electrohold has received 9,576 complaints over the past two and a half months, of which 8,047 have been processed.
Kalina Trifonova, Deputy Chair of the Management Board of EVN Bulgaria, said that the escalation around high electricity bills is the result of a crisis of trust. Trifonova added that EVN receives between 100 and 200 complaints about high bills each winter, but this year the number has surged to around 6,000.
The consumer organizations
Bogomil Nikolov, CEO of the Active Consumers Bulgarian National Association, said that the complaints can be explained with the public’s diminishing trust over the years. Nikolov stated that implementing measures to restore that trust should be a priority. He added that the dispute resolution system also needs to be improved.
Emil Georgiev, head of the Federation of Consumers, dismissed suggestions that the price of electricity is a result of the adoption of the euro and that it stems from coordinated actions by the power distribution companies. We maintain that neither of these claims is true.” Georgiev added: “There has been a wave of discontent. We are not saying there is no basis for it, but these complaints are the result of political manipulation ahead of the elections.” He reported that his organization has been receiving complaints about high utility bills, most often against Toplofikatsiya heating utility. Meeting Addresses Surge in Complaints over High Household Electricity Bills 2026 THE NEWS FROM BULGARIA – NEWS AGENCY 2009-2025 2026-03-20 16:49:00 Latest news World news Country news Most important news latest news most important latest of the day Justice Petar Nizamov Feathers Petar Nizamov- Feathers Justice bg iustitia.bg iustitia iusticia usticia investigation Burgas Bulgaria news news of the last hour news of the day news of today Bulgaria news The news from Bulgaria blitz news top news most important most commented latest news Boyko Borisov news weather coronavirus news news weather facebook youtube facebook instagram news today news of the last minutes news today today news news bg news leading news hot news bg news site for news all news news bg news of the last hour latest latest news bg news of today news today news today news of the last hour latest news today news bg news news 24 hours news vesti bg novini news world bird bg bivol bg bivol trud bg novini latest news today novinite bg news hello bulgaria political party coat of arms delyan peevski scandalous Bulgarian National Television Free Europe Television scandal exclusive live tv live right now tv tv online tv program bg live now tv news online tv online live court Burgas court Burgas district court Burgas court Burgas district court Burgas district court Burgas appellate court Burgas prosecutor Burgas prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Prosecutor General Ivan Geshev Prosecutor Geshev Tsatsarov Ministry of Internal Affairs Burgas ODMR Burgas ODPR Burgas police Burgas district police Burgas prosecutor Tsatsarov SGS cases Varna court chairman of the SGS court decisions on civil cases decisions on cases Plovdiv court decision of the court decisions cases Varna court criminal cases district district court decisions work in the court SGS chairman of the SGS judges Sofia court post judges Plovdiv court Plovdiv judges Plovdiv Supreme Court Inspectorate Supreme Court Supreme Judicial Council lawyer lawyer criminal cases lawyer civil cases lawyer marriage cases lawyer administrative criminal law criminal process civil law civil process administrative law constitutional law
