Maritsa 3 power station is a 120 MW coal power station in Khaskovo, Bulgaria. It is operated by TEC Maritsa 3 AD. Based on its capacity (estimated), it can supply roughly 150k homes (estimated). It ranks #23 of 55 Bulgaria power plants by installed capacity. Commissioned in 1971, it is around 55 years old — an older, legacy facility. Its annual emissions of 73,524 t CO₂/yr (EU ETS verified (EUTL 2023)) are equivalent to about 17k cars driven for a year. In context, coal supplies about 22.5% of Bulgaria's electricity; the national grid averages 276 gCO₂/kWh (71.9% low-carbon) (2025).
Plant data: WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0), id WRI1008058.
Known, modelled and calculated values are kept separate. Missing fields are shown as unavailable.
The capacity and/or fuel fields on this page include a source-backed provenance label from GEM, an official registry, Wikidata, OSM, or a cross-source match.
capacity: Wikidata P2109 nameplate capacity; fuel: WRI source-record fuel
At 120 MW, Maritsa 3 power station is below the median coal plant in Bulgaria (180 MW). Technically it is described as subcritical. Its current lifecycle status is “mothballed” — so it is not yet, or no longer, generating at full output. Coal plants burn pulverised coal to raise high-pressure steam for a turbine; they run as baseload but are the most carbon-intensive mainstream source and the first targeted for retirement or efficiency retrofits.
Capacity comparison computed from the WRI Global Power Plant Database; fuel-type context is general engineering background.
This facility's annual emissions are roughly equivalent to:
Equivalencies via US EPA Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies; emissions per EU ETS verified (EUTL 2023) (measured for US EPA/EU ETS, modelled for Climate TRACE).
Installed capacity (MW), WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0).
Operated by TEC Maritsa 3 AD.
This coal plant burns coal to raise high-pressure steam that spins a turbine-generator. It sits in a humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cfa) — Northern Hemisphere, latitude 42.1°N — which shapes how much energy it can produce and how its output varies through the year.
Monthly mean temperature
Heating degree-days here run 0% above the median power plant in this dataset — a proxy for how much extra energy heated equipment must replace through its surfaces in winter.
Climate heat-demand index: 50/100 — this site sits in the mid third of the power plants we cover by heating degree-days.
Climate normals: WorldClim 2.1 (1970–2000 monthly normals, 10 arc-min, CC BY 4.0); zone: Köppen-Geiger world climate classification (Kottek et al. 2006, 0.5° grid). Degree-days & heat-demand index computed by PowerAtlas — a modelled heat-demand proxy, not a measured site figure.
For a plant’s outdoor hardware — heat-recovery steam generators (HRSG), expansion joints, valves, flanges and their insulation — the local climate sets how fast unprotected steel and coatings degrade. This site sits in a mild atmospheric environment (estimated ISO 9223 class C2 — Low), with humidity / wetness the leading environmental stress.
Higher environmental severity is exactly where protective removable insulation pays back most: a sheltered micro-climate slows corrosion, UV and thermal-cycling damage and extends outdoor hardware service life. This is an indicative site-climate context — not a condition assessment of any specific plant or operator.
Indicative estimate via the ISO 9223:2012 informative method (atmospheric corrosivity from temperature, time-of-wetness and airborne salinity), using WorldClim climate normals, the Köppen-Geiger class and coast distance. Indicative, not a measured corrosion rate.
The #9 largest coal power plant of 14 in Bulgaria by capacity.
Bulgaria has 14 coal power plants in this dataset, together about 5,419 MW of capacity.
Coordinates 42.0519, 25.6231 from WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0). View on OpenStreetMap.
Maritsa 3 power station is a 120 MW source-record coal power plant in Khaskovo, Bulgaria, commissioned in 1971.
Its output is enough to supply roughly 150,171 homes (estimated).
Maritsa 3 power station is operated by TEC Maritsa 3 AD.
Maritsa 3 power station has measured emissions of about 73,524 tonnes of CO₂ per year (EU ETS verified (EUTL 2023)).
