885096460

JPRS-EER-91-053 2S April 1991

ECONOMIC

Maritsa-Iztok as a source of energy, construction of the nuclear power plant in Belene having been stoppcd.

Together with the National Labor Hygiene Center, the Maritsa-Iztok SO has undertaken a comprehensive study of the influence of this industrial complex on human hcalth. So far, only partial medical studies have been madę. Had such problems been resolved at the right time, both the consequences and the necded restoration funds would have been smaller. However, the power industry, like many other areas, had no possibility of applying Western technology. In addition to prohibi-tions, it was influenced by the fact that it was linked to the USSR and the other Eastern European countries, which, as a rule, were on the same level. We must involve the entire scientific and engineering capacity so that, within a single decade, we can lower pollution to the stipulated standards. We do not have to reinvent the bicycle. We must use the experience of the developed countries. However, the basie steps must be designed and carried out domestically because the wholc project requires huge funds. In the futurę, we must also change coal-buming technology. At the present time, the most advanccd technology that ensures a substantially lower emission of sulfur and nitrogen oxides, as compared to the present system of direct buming, is that of the fluidized bed. It, too, will require substantial funds because it will require total replacement of equipment— naturally, over a longer period of time. The main activity in the preservation and restoration of the environment will also include the recultivation of the land taken by the mines. Evcry year, 1,500 decares are recultivated. This costs betwcen 9 and 10 million leva. This will be the main concern until the entire deposit is exhausted, over the next 40-50 years.

The Power Industry Was Poor and Remains Poor

The financial problem is the second huge problem facing the power industry, after the ecological one. So far, power was sold to both the population and enterprises substantially below cost. Such a social policy, which I would not dare to qualify as wrong, was pernicious. The reason was that the power industry, as an economic complex, accumulated a debt of 6.8 billion leva. According to the specialists in the sector, and not only those in this sector, this amount will have to be written off. The new prices, however, would make self-flnancing even morę difficult. Currently, the power-industry workers are penetrating morę deeply into the problem, metaphorically speaking, compared to the time prior to the reform. When the price was 4.5 stotinki, our annual losses were much lower, totaling some 400 million leva. Now the anticipated loss is estimated at 2.4 billion leva, with the new prices.

Nowhere else in the world does the power industry operatc on a planned-loss basis! In some countries, only coal extraction is partially subsidized. The reasons for the planned losses are several. So far, funds for Capital repairs and social projects, scientific research and new technologies, interest paid on loans for working asscts and investment credits, and so on, were not included in production costs. Now they will be, in accordance with the new Law on Accounting. Furthermore, the price structure is such that the prices of much of the materials essentially uscd in the power industry have gone up by a factor of between 5-7 and 12.

The Old New Problems

We are continuing to suffer from a total lack of basie materials. The power industry absorbs huge resources in terms of labor, materials, and finances. The materials that we are using directly in the production process account for morę than 80 percent of production costs: coal, a great deal of water, Chemical agents.... Every year, the Maritsa-Iztok SO needs, for example, some 60,000 tons of fuel oil, about 2,000 tons of gasoline, about 5,000 tons of various types of oils and, on a daily basis, 45 tons of diesel oil. Considering the existence of a universal crisis in fuels and lubricants, these figures become even morę frightening. At the present time, the three mines together work some three to four days a week instead of aound the clock.

The rest of the time is used in repairs and waiting for supplies of diesel oil, lubricants, and so on, which come to us piecemeal. Naturally, this system is quite ineffi-cient, for which reason last year we were unable to meet the planned stripping by about 20 percent. This has hindered coal extraction this year.

Against the background of unemployment in the country, it seems anachronistic that we are experiencing a scarcity of manpower. We need some 1,200-1,300 skilled workers and specialists—excavator operators, electric locomotive engineers, mechanics, contact-grid personnel, and power grinders. The reason is that, in the middle of last year, the Law on Social Security and Pensions of Workers in Energy Production and Energy Industry was amended. Many of the specialists were allowed to retire not at age 60 but at 55. In a period of five to $ix months, morę than 2,000 persons were pen-sioned off. One cannot turn a miner or a power worker into a good specialist in a fcw months, or even in a few years. Although there is unemployment in the settlc-ments around Maritsa-Iztok. we have no tangible influx of personnel. The reasons are numerous: a commuting distance of as much as 70 km daily, work in shifts, and the handling of huge and expensive machines, the responsibility for which is crushing. Furthermore, labor conditions are poor. AU of this is not sufficiently com-pensated through wages and incentives.

I believc that privatization of the power industry is possible, although some people are firmly opposed to it. We must begin with the morę peripheral activities that servicc the power industry. By this I mean repairs, services, quarries, automotive facilities, railroads that move the workers within the power complexes, and bases for technological development and geological studies.

Today Bułgaria produces almost as much electric power per capita as does France. In France, the national