Sofia's heating utility Toplofikatsiya said it was starting switching off central heating in hospitals, schools, kindergartens and other public buildings on April 6 2009 because of the warm weather. Heating in residential buildings will be turned off gradually.

Consumers living in residential buildings who wanted to have heating on despite the warm weather had to file a request with Toplofikatsiya.

Meanwhile the conflict between Toplofikatsiya, which is now fully owned by the state, and the state-owed natural gas distribution firm Bulgargas is about to be solved.

Toplofikatsiya owes about 328 million leva to Bulgargas and on April 1 2009 it was warned that its supplies would be cut off unless it paid 38 million leva of its debt immediately. The next day, it was announced that the state-owned Bulgarian Energy Holding (BEH) bought out 215 million leva of Toplofikatsiya's debt to Bulgargas, which is a BEH subsidiary.

By buying out a large part of the heating utility's debt, BEH has become a shareholder in the company, Dnevnik daily reported.

BEH is Bulgaria's second-largest company and its payroll of about 22 000 makes it the biggest corporate employer in the country.

BEH was established in September 2008, when the Economy Ministry changed the name of Bulgargas Holding to Bulgarian Energy Holding and transferred stakes in four companies to it - mining conglomerate Mini Maritza Iztok, thermal power station Maritza Iztok 2, nuclear power plant Kozloduy and power grid operator NEK.
The holding company already had three subsidiaries - Bulgargas, transit firm Bulgartransgas and telecoms firm Bulgartel.

Through NEK and Bulgargaz, the holding would hold majority stakes in the future nuclear power plant at Belene and several big pipeline projects, including Bourgas-Alexandroupolis and the Nabucco and South Stream gas pipelines.

Toplofikatsiya Sofia was previously owned by the Sofia city hall, which struck a deal with the Economy Ministry, the sole shareholder of BEH, to relinquish its majority stake in the utility.