n one-third. The utilization of thermal
capacity declined by 13.5 percent.

New power from generating plants scheduled to begin operation in the
1971-75 period totals about 3 million kilowatts. Major power stations to
be commissioned include: hydroelectric stations--with a capacity of 1
million kilowatts--on the Sestrimo cascade, in the upper reaches of the
Maritsa River and at the Vucha cascade, southwest of Plovdiv; a thermal
power plant with a capacity of about 620,000 kilowatts at Bobov Dol,
fueled by local coal; and an atomic power station with a capacity of
880,000 kilowatts at Kozloduy on the Danube River, in the northwestern
corner of the country. According to government plans, total generating
capacity is scheduled to reach 7 million kilowatts in 1975 and 12
million kilowatts in 1980. The more distant plans include the
construction, jointly with Romania, of a hydroelectric power complex on
the Danube, at Belene on the Bulgarian bank of the river and Ciora on
the Romanian side. The Soviet Union has provided large-scale technical
and material assistance in the development of the electric power system.

Production of electrical energy amounted to 21 billion kilowatt-hours in
1971, of which 90 percent was generated by thermal stations. Energy
output in 1972 reached 22.3 billion kilowatt-hours. The Sixth Five-Year
Plan calls for an energy output of 30.5 billion kilowatt-hours in 1975,
which is equivalent to an average annual increase in output of 9.4
percent during the five-year period. In the years 1971 and 1972 energy
output rose by an average of 6.9 percent per year, so that an average
annual rise of 11 percent will be needed in the remaining years to
attain the planned goal in 1975. Consumption of electrical energy in
1975 is planned to reach 33.5 billion kilowatt-hours. The planned
deficit of 3 billion kilowatt-hours is to be covered by imports from
Romania, Yugoslavia, and the Soviet Union.

The electrical transmission network is well developed, and further major
improvements have been planned. The network is connected with the power
grids of Romania and Yugoslavia. A 400-kilovolt power line from the
Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic in the Soviet Union was reported to
have been completed in mid-1972. There was no evidence nine months later
that power had actually been transmitted over that line.

Eighteen percent of the total electrical energy supply in 1971 was used
by the power stations or lost in tran