According to estimates, nuclear energy will remain the dominant source of electricity production in Bulgaria until 2030 and reach 14.1 TWh, despite plans by the Government there to replace it with new power from renewable sources. In 2020 electricity consumption in Bulgaria reached 30.9 TWh, of which almost a half (44 %) was met by electricity produced by nuclear power plant Kozloduy, according to data published by the analytics company GlobalData.
Head of GlobalData Pavan Vyakaranam explained that Bulgaria’s electricity market is currently in transition, and the Government is slowly reducing its use of coal to replace it with renewables. During this change, the Government plans to rely on nuclear energy to meet most of the electricity demand. Nuclear electricity generation was 15.9 TW in 2020 and its share in Bulgaria’s total electricity production was 44 %. According to estimates, this share will remain above 40 % until 2030.
Bulgaria has one nuclear power plant – NPP Kozloduy, with two Soviet-made nuclear reactors. After the decommissioning of units 1 and 2 (in 2002) and 3 and 4 (in 2006), 1000-MW units 5 and 6 remained operational. In January this year, plans were approved for the construction of unit 7 at NPP Kozloduy. The equipment previously purchased for the NPP Belene project should be used for the new unit.
