Umicore Med, the Pirdop-based local unit of Belgian metals and materials group Umicore, became Bulgaria's first power consumer to sign a direct electricity purchase contract last week after clinching a deal with the Kozloduy nuclear power plant (NPP), energy minister Milko Kovachev said. The contract, which expires at the end of 2004 but is likely to be extended, further the liberalisation of Bulgaria's power market (estimated at 170 mln euro in 2004), the official said. The concrete parameters of the deal were withheld due to a confidentiality policy but NPP executive director Yordan Kostadinov said the tariff at which the plant will be selling electricity to Umicore is higher Umicore, whose 2003 power intake was 291gWh, was one of the 15 local power guzzlers with annual consumption exceeding 100gWh who made the list of consumers eligible for direct energy supply deals. Local smelter Asarel Medet and steel company Stomana Industry are also pursuing direct power purchases deals with Kozloduy. In June, Bulgaria's power industry regulator assigned NPP Kozloduy a 200MW quota, which it is allowed to sell to eligible customers at negotiable prices. Bulgaria intends to open to competition up to 60% of its energy market by 2007 and to grant household customers the choice of power supplier while eligible industrial consumers will be allowed to import electricity. The National Electricity Transmission Company has already registered the Maritsa Iztok mining company, Asarel Medet and Stomana Industry as the next industrial consumers that will promptly complete the negotiations for direct power supply deals with the Varna, Bobov Dol, Rousse and Maritsa Iztok 2 thermal power plants.