Programme: Recovery and Resilience Plan

Ficosota Food EAD has its production activity on a site with an area of over 55 decares in the town of Shumen. We produce various well-known brands of food products - mainly bruschetta, waffles, etc. Snacks. To ensure the production, about 8 125 MW of electricity is consumed annually, which is currently provided entirely by the electricity grid. Our allowed connected power is 3 500 kW, which is used almost entirely. Crisis moments of high energy prices have led to an inability to optimally plan and lack of flexibility in pricing. Our strategy includes both capacity expansion and product portfolio diversification. The large price fluctuations in recent years have adversely affected our decisions for new investments, as well as negatively affected our competitiveness. As we operate at full capacity, each power outage (more than 35 times in 2022) results in significant direct losses. As part of our development strategy, we have added a goal of achieving maximum energy independence, which we accept as a way to reduce the influence of the energy component in pricing. 
This can be achieved by obtaining energy from a photovoltaic plant. To ensure maximum effect, we also provide a system for storing the energy produced and not used at the time, provided by a battery complex used in case of power outage in such a way that there is no interruption of production.
Under the project, on the roofs of our own buildings, 750 kW photovoltaic plant and 828 kWh storage system (battery) will be installed, through which we will provide on average about 10% of the electricity we need. 
As a result, we will achieve partial energy independence to reduce grid energy consumption, avoid direct losses from lack of electricity and, as a result, improve our competitiveness and flexibility.