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Yordan Yordanov
Opportunities for Improving Social Policy on Energy Poverty in Bulgaria in the Context of the Transition to a Green Economy
Summary:
Energy poverty is one of the significant contemporary challenges, and its containment and control policies are one of the main objectives of the European community on its path to a green economy. More than 96 million Europeans are at risk of poverty and social exclusion, while 57 million cannot heat their homes in winter. Bulgaria is the country with the highest share of the poor and at risk of poverty, including energy-dependent households, which is also confirmed by the values of the Energy Poverty Index, by which our country has the worst indicators among EU Member States.
This development draws attention to the specificities of energy poverty, seen against the background of a generally accepted understanding of social poverty, the possibilities of changing the model for determining the range of energy poor persons and households in Bulgaria and the removal of a set of proposals to limit and control energy poverty, building on passive targeted energy support for heating and perceived as a direction for the development and improvement of social policy in the field of social assistance in Bulgaria.
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Galina Chipriyanova, Niya Marinova
The Role and Significance of Internal Audit in Energy Sector Ånterprises
Summary:
The internal audit in enterprises within the “Energy” sector, where the Bulgarian state is the principal, is an essential mechanism for ensuring transparency, accountability and efficiency in the management of state resources. This study aims to assess the effectiveness of internal control systems and provide an overview of audit activities, results and recommendations for improvement. To achieve this goal, the following tasks are addressed: 1) examining the scope and significance of internal audit in enterprises within the “Energy” sector, 2) analyzing the strategic and annual audit plans, developed based on risk assessment and the priorities of these enterprises; 3) attempting to identify the audit universe, including defining and classifying all areas subject to audit; 4) paying particular attention to the audit strategy (the approach to conducting audit activities) and the distribution of audit personnel in the context of optimal allocation of audit resources. The research defends the thesis that internal audit supports the sustainable development and efficiency of the energy sector by strengthening public trust in institutions and ensuring the good management of public resources.
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Nadya Parpulova, Vladimir Zinoviev
Economic Alternatives for the Transport and Energy Sector in the Crisis with Energy Supplies
Summary:
Russia is a major energy and commodity producer. The current conflict in Ukraine escalates inflation to extreme levels causes a disruption and provokes high risks to global growth. Brent oil and natural gas prices spiked early in March before falling back, with Brent oil ending the month at $103 per barrel and European gas prices at ˆ121 per megawatt hour, up 33% and 55% respectively since the start of the year. The European Commission announced ambitious plans to reduce imports of gas from Russia by two-thirds before the end of the year via more diversification, energy efficiency and by accelerating investments in wind and solar power plants. Despite this ambition, the March EU summit in Versailles highlighted that there are few near-term alternatives to Russian gas and that reducing European dependency on Russian gas requires a long-term strategy.
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Marina Nikolova
Posibilities for Ecologically-Oriented Utilization of Agricultural Biomass
Summary:
Biomass contributes the major share to the renewable energy sources (RES) potential in Bulgaria. A considerable amount of biomass is produces as a result of breeding animals, growing various crops, storing waste, maintaining green areas in the public sector or recycling waste waters.
An important mechanism for effective utilization of energy and biomass energy, in particular, is communal energy planning. Municipalities, micro-regions and regions should develop and strategically consider systems for utilizing separate energy sources, including biomass. For this reason, modern ecologically-oriented energy production technologies are of great importance for the local economies of each particular region and also lead to improvement of their ecological balance. With reference to this, it is necessary to make a timely assessment of the effectiveness and potential for electricity production form biomass in Bulgaria.
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Borislav Boev
Nuclear Energy and the Transition to Low-Emission Electricity System
Summary:
This article explores national and European energy development plans in the context of the transition to a low-emission economy. The current structure of the electricity system of the country, the main objectives in the national strategic document for energy development "Integrated Plan in the field of energy and climate of the Republic of Bulgaria 2021-2030" and the package "Clean Energy for All Europeans" are presented. At the same time, the main challenges that Bulgaria will face in the decommissioning of carbon-intensive electricity generation (especially coal power plants) and the construction of replacement capacity have been identified. In this context, the article highlights the main advantages of nuclear energy as a safe, reliable, sustainable, and low-emission energy source and provides specific guidelines for the expansion of nuclear energy in the forthcoming transformation of the country's electricity system.
