Important information on the management of Koprinka Dam
In connection with the press release issued by Kazanlak Municipality on the occasion of the meeting held on 25 January 2023 at the Council of Ministers regarding the management of Koprinka dam, it is important to clarify the factual situation:
NEK EAD is not the owner of Koprinka Dam, nor does it manage it as a water body.
Despite the fact that there is no act by which the dam and the hydrotechnical facilities of Koprinka dam are given to NEK for management and operation and maintenance, the company carries out diligently activities in the technical control of the condition and safety of these important facilities, their operation, maintenance and repair, as well as in connection with the efficient and rational use of the water resource for power generation, irrigation, industrial needs and riverbed watering. The cost of all these activities is considerable and has averaged BGN 2 323 115 over the last 4 years. It should also be noted that NEK maintains the dam and the hydraulic structures without carrying out the economic activity of electricity generation by using the waters of Koprinka dam.
At the meeting in the Council of Ministers, all the participating parties agreed that a solution to the issues related to the maintenance and management of the banks of the multipurpose dams is possible after the adoption of an act of the Council of Ministers under article 31, paragraph 2 of the Water Act (WA), which will determine the conditions and procedures for the provision of management and O&M of all 50 multipurpose and significant dams included in Annex 1 of the WA. After the adoption of this act, a separate act must be adopted to grant the management and O&M of each specific dam in the Annex. It is important to emphasise that over the years National Electricity Company has repeatedly addressed the competent authorities on the need to adopt acts regulating the management and operation of the multipurpose dams.
During the aforementioned meeting, the representative of the State Enterprise "Management and O&M of Dams" cited decision No. 11644 of 01.08.2019 of the Supreme Administrative Court (SAC) in administrative case No. 4470/2029, arguing that in the court decision NEK EAD is defined as the owner of Koprinka dam. It is clear from the content of the judgment (available on the website of the Supreme Administrative Court) that it was rendered in connection with an administrative dispute over the extension of the validity of a "water abstraction" permit issued to Energo-Pro Bulgaria EAD and the court did not rule on the issue of the ownership of the dam. The decision has been appealed and the five-member panel of the SAC (decision No. 17275 of 17.12.2019) has found that "there is no evidence on file that NEK EAD is the owner of Koprinka dam and its adjacent hydraulic structures". Koprinka dam is a multipurpose and significant public state-owned dam, included in Annex 1 to Article 13(1)(1) of the Water Act and there is no legal possibility for it to be owned by NEK EAD as a commercial company.
