The Maritsa Iztok Complex is the largest energy complex in

South Eastern Europe Southeast Europe or Southeastern Europe (SEE) is a geographical subregion of Europe, consisting primarily of the Balkans. Sovereign states and territories that are included in the region are Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia (al ...

. It is located in

Stara Zagora Province Stara Zagora ( bg, Област Стара Загора), formerly known as the Stara Zagora okrug, is a province of south-central Bulgaria. It is named after its administrative and industrial centre—the city of Stara Zagora—the sixt ...

, south-central

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...

. It consists of three

lignite Lignite, often referred to as brown coal, is a soft, brown, combustible, sedimentary rock formed from naturally compressed peat. It has a carbon content around 25–35%, and is considered the lowest rank of coal due to its relatively low heat ...

-fired

thermal power station A thermal power station is a type of power station in which heat energy is converted to electrical energy. In a steam-generating cycle heat is used to boil water in a large pressure vessel to produce high-pressure steam, which drives a stea ...

s. The complex is located in a large

lignite coal Lignite, often referred to as brown coal, is a soft, brown, combustible, sedimentary rock formed from naturally compressed peat. It has a carbon content around 25–35%, and is considered the lowest rank of coal due to its relatively low heat ...

basin, which includes several mines, enrichment plants, a briquette plant and its own railway system. The development of the thermal power and mining complex at Maritsa Iztok began in 1952, but the lignite deposits used to be known well in the mid-19th century. The Maritsa Iztok mines and power plants are interdependent as the only market for coal is the power plants, while the power plants have no other supplier of coal but the mines. The complex is the largest source of emissions in Bulgaria with 142,913,573 tons emitted i
2020

Maritsa Iztok-1 (TPS AES Galabovo)

Maritsa Iztok-1 is located near

Galabovo Galabovo ( bg, Гълъбово , from гълъб ''galab'', "dove" + -ovo) is a town in south-central Bulgaria, part of Stara Zagora Province. It is the administrative centre of the homonymous Galabovo Municipality. As of December 2009, the town ...

. In October 1998, the old power plant with a capacity of 500 megawatts (MW) was privatized and sold to Consolidated Continental Commerce (3C), later purchased by

AES Corporation The AES Corporation is an American utility and power generation company. It owns and operates power plants, which it uses to generate and sell electricity to end users and intermediaries like utilities and industrial facilities. AES is headquart ...

. On 15 February 2000, AES and the Bulgarian grid operator Natzionalna Elektricheska Kompania EAD (NEK) signed a 15-year tolling agreement, according to which AES has an obligation to replace the old power station with a new facility. In June 2006, AES started construction of the new 670 MW power station. It became operational on 3 June 2011. The new power station consists of two pulverised coal boilers of 335 MW each, two steam turbines, two generators and desulphurisation facilities. The plant was constructed by

Alstom Alstom SA is a French multinational rolling stock manufacturer operating worldwide in rail transport markets, active in the fields of passenger transportation, signalling, and locomotives, with products including the AGV, TGV, Eurostar, Avelia ...

. It cost €1.2 billion.

Maritsa Iztok-2

Maritsa Iztok-2 is the largest thermal power plant in the Balkans. It is located from Stara Zagora in the vicinity of the village of Radetski and the dam lake Ovcharitsa. The construction of Maritsa Iztok-2 started on 7 May 1962; it was inaugurated on 10 November 1966. Between 1979 and 1995 the power station was expanded by four additional units. 1977 and 1980 two new tall chimneys were built. Maritsa Iztok-2 has a total installed capacity of 1,465 MW and generates 30% of Bulgaria's electricity. It consists of eight generating units, two of which are equipped with flue gas desulphurization plants. The rehabilitation of the older power units, including construction of FGD plants for units 1 to 6, are in progress. Maritsa Iztok-2 is wholly state-owned. It is a subsidiary of

Bulgarian Energy Holding EAD Bulgarian Energy Holding EAD (BEH EAD) is a state owned energy holding company in Bulgaria. It was incorporated on 18 September 2008 after renaming Bulgargaz Holding EAD. In November 2009, the Bulgarian Government decided to list the company at t ...

. In November 2014 the power station was ranked as the industrial facility that is causing the highest damage costs to

health Health, according to the World Health Organization, is "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity".World Health Organization. (2006)''Constitution of the World Health Organiza ...

and the

environment Environment most often refers to: __NOTOC__ * Natural environment, all living and non-living things occurring naturally * Biophysical environment, the physical and biological factors along with their chemical interactions that affect an organism or ...

in Bulgaria and the entire

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

by the

European Environment Agency The European Environment Agency (EEA) is the agency of the European Union (EU) which provides independent information on the environment. Definition The European Environment Agency (EEA) is the agency of the European Union (EU) which provides i ...

. In June 2019 a fire thought to be caused by routine maintenance broke out on the smokestack of the flue gas desulphurisation system at Unit 8.

Maritsa Iztok-3

Maritsa Iztok-3 is Bulgaria's third-largest power plant. It is located from

Stara Zagora Stara Zagora ( bg, Стара Загора, ) is the sixth-largest city in Bulgaria, and the administrative capital of the homonymous Stara Zagora Province. Name The name comes from the Slavic root ''star'' ("old") and the name of the medieva ...

. The power plant has an installed capacity of 900 MW, which is produced by four units of each 225 MW. It has a tall chimney. In 1998, the United States power utility

Entergy Corporation Entergy Corporation is a Fortune 500 integrated energy company engaged primarily in electric power production and retail distribution operations in the Deep South of the United States. Entergy is headquartered in New Orleans, Louisiana, and gene ...

purchased 73% of Maritsa Iztok-3 shares for US$375 million from the Bulgarian state. Entergy also has the obligation to modernize the power station. In 2002, the Italian power company

Enel Enel S.p.A. is an Italian Multinational corporation, multinational manufacturer and distributor of electricity and gas. Enel, which originally stood for Ente nazionale per l'energia elettrica (National Electricity Board), was first established ...

joined the project; in 2006 Enel acquired Entergy's stake. At present, Maritsa Iztok-3 is owned and operated by Energiina Kompaniya Maritsa Iztok 3 AD, a joint venture of ContourGlobal (73%) and NEK (27%). Enel is planning to invest in a new 700-800 MW coal-fired power plant next to the existing Maritsa Iztok-3 plant. The new power plant is expected to cost €900 million.

New power station

The Bulgarian power regulator is expected to open a competitive procedure for the construction of a new 700 MW plant in the Maritsa Iztok basin. In addition to Enel's new power station project, the construction of a new power station is proposed by the German utility

RWE RWE AG is a German multinational energy company headquartered in Essen. It generates and trades electricity in Asia-Pacific, Europe and the United States. The company is Europe's most climate threatening Company, the world's number two in offsh ...

. RWE and the Maritsa Iztok mining complex have signed an agreement on setting up a joint company that will apply for construction of the power station. RWE expects the investment to be €900 million to €1 billion, and the power station to be ready by 2013.

References

External links