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SOFIA, April 8 (Reuters) - U.S. power companies AES and ContourGlobal signed deals on Wednesday to amend their contracts with Bulgaria's public power provider NEK that will lower the prices of electricity they produce in the Balkan country.
Bulgaria has been struggling to keep politically sensitive electricity costs at bay and cut the huge deficits in its inefficient energy sector.
AES and ContourGlobal sell electricity to state-owned NEK under 15-year contracts, and the energy minister said at a press conference in Sofia that the new deals would slash capacity payments, part of the overall price, by about 30 percent. Their two coal-fired plants produce about 25 percent of the country's power.
"The agreement is good for Bulgaria. It is a good compromise," said Garry Levesley, ContourGlobal's executive vice president.
(Reporting By Tsvetelia Tsolova; editing by Matthias Williams)