site.btaEnergy Regulator Works on 6,548 Complaints Over High Electricity Bills

The Energy and Water Regulatory Commission (EWRC) is working on 6,548 complaints about high electricity bills, EWRC Chair Plamen Mladenovski said here Friday.

3,707 of those complaints have already been processed, including some cases initiated by the regulator itself in response to social media posts. Mladenovski made the remarks at an event on high electricity bills organized by Ombudsman Velislava Delcheva.

The first step is to verify the volumes of electricity purchased by end suppliers to determine whether such large increases actually occurred, Mladenovski said. He added that electricity consumption was lower in November, which resulted in lower bills for households and other consumers.

December, however, was colder and saw a sharp increase in purchased volumes, he added. Depending on the supplier, the amount of electricity purchased in December was 33% to 47% higher, Mladenovski said. In January, the volumes bought on the exchange market rose by a further 14% to 16%, he added.

High household electricity bills became a major public issue in Bulgaria at the start of 2026 after invoices for December 2025 and January 2026 prompted the Energy and Water Regulatory Commission to launch an extraordinary inspection on February 4. Complaints rose from about 1,200 by February 19 to more than 4,600 under review by March 5, with around 98% coming from households that heat with electricity, mainly through air conditioners, while the energy minister later said complaints filed with power companies had exceeded 15,000. Officials linked much of the increase to colder weather and higher consumption rather than a tariff change, and the regulator said it had so far found no violations in the application of electricity prices or the billing period, but the issue still triggered protests in Vidin, Silistra, Plovdiv and Shumen, alongside demands for compensation in proven cases of overcharging and findings by the consumer watchdog of unfair complaint-handling practices.