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Signed Grant Agreements with the Electricity Distribution Companies and Electricity System Operator

Caretaker Minister of Energy Vladimir Malinov signed contracts Monday for grant assistance from the Modernization Fund for the implementation of projects with the representatives of Electricity Distribution Networks West EAD, Electricity Distribution North AD, Electricity...

December 5, 2024 is the RESTORE Application Deadline

Until 16:30 h on 05.12.2024. it will be possible to apply for the “National infrastructure for storage of renewable energy” (RESTORE) call of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP). The investment will support the construction and commissioning of a national...

Electricity Market Liberalization Postponed For One Year

The Law on Amendments and Supplements to the Energy Act, adopted by the 49th National Assembly on April 25, 2024, has been published in the State Gazette №39/May 1st, 2024- The Law provides for the postponement of the final stage of the liberalization of the electricity market...

RE-Source Southeast 2024 Conference

RE-Source Southeast – the largest event dedicated to the corporate procurement of renewable energy in Southeastern Europe, will take place for the 4th year in a row in Sofia.   Save the dates May 15-16, 2024 and register now!   The 2024 event will address the latest...

ATEB’s Position On Extra Taxation Prolongation In 2024 / 20.11.2023

POSITION OF ATEB ON THE DRAFT LAW ON THE STATE BUDGET OF THE REPUBLIC OF BULGARIA FOR 2024. Regarding the above mentioned Position ATEB addressed the Council of Ministers of Bulgaria, the Ministry of Energy, the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the Parliamentary Committees on...

The new annual almanac of the Bulgarian energy industry, Energy Info BG

The annual Bulgarian energy almanac Energy Info BG 2023 has been published. What is new in it are up-to-date expert opinions of leading analysts and specialists in the energy sector in our country. They discuss for the users of the publication the challenges facing the energy...

Planned amendments to the balancing methodology

Energy and water regulatory commission (EWRC) published a draft amendments to the Electricity Trading Rules (ETR), including a new methodology for determining the prices of balancing energy, which is part of ETR:...

In force are the amendments in Energy Act and Licensing ordinance

On Friday (24.02.2023) the changes to Ordinance 3 on licensing of the activities in the energy sector were published. Also at the beginning of February the amendments to the Energy Act came into force. The changes regulate the work of new market participants, increase the...

Financial contributions from traders and power producers to support end consumers

At the end of 2022, amendments to the Law on Implementation of the provisions of the State Budget Act came in force, obliging electricity producers and electricity traders to make financial contributions to the Security of the electricity system fund (SESF). The aim is to use the...

The draft energy strategy relies on new NPP, RES and HPPs

The Ministry of Energy (ME) published a draft energy strategy entitled Strategic vision for sustainable development of the electricity sector of the Republic of Bulgaria with a horizon till 2053. In it, the ME based its scenarios for the country’s energy development on two...

Production and consumption in 2022

In 2022, In Bulgaria was observed extremely high electricity production equal to 50.4 TWh. The generation structure was dominated by coal-fired thermal power plants, followed by the Kozloduy nuclear power plant and hydroelectric plants, with the percentage distribution by plant...

Gas agreement between Turkey and Bulgaria

The contract with the Turkish company Botaş is for infrastructure usage, for supply of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and is of strategic importance. This was said by the acting Minister of Energy Rosen Hristov during his hearing in the Committee on Energy in the National Assembly....

Kozloduy NPP waives penalties and pays compensations

According to a publication in Mediapool, Kozloduy NPP has refused to continue lawsuits filed by its previous management against four electricity traders associated with businessman Hristo Kovachki. The nuclear power plant claimed BGN 129 million due to unfulfilled electricity...

Founding of the first regional energy exchange

Slovenian and Serbian TSOs along with EPEX SPOT established the first regional power exchange for Central and South-Eastern Europe. Alpine-Adriatic Danube Power Exchange – ADEX was officially established on 23 December 2022 in Ljubljana via formal signature of its founding...

Overhauls of power plants in 2023

In 2023, the Bulgarian Kozloduy nuclear power plant will operate at a reduced capacity due to the overhaul of two units, which will last a total of 70 days. Also, TPP Marica Istok 2 is undergoing overhaul, and for a significantly longer period, while HPP Chaira will be offline...

Taxation of revenues of electricity traders and electricity producers

On December 1, Regulation (EU) 2022/1854 of the Council of the European Union on emergency intervention to address high energy prices entered into force. The regulation is mandatory and designed to impose supporting measures for consumers to tackle high energy prices. This...

Termination of Bulgarian natural gas release programme

The parliament adopted the waiver of the obligation of the state gas supplier Bulgargaz to sell part of its quantities of natural gas to the Balkan gas hub (local gas exchange) in order to provide liquidity to the state gas exchange and participate in the liberalization of the...

Outlook for the electricity market during the winter season

The article was published in the December issue of Utilities magazine. With the approach of the first cold weeks of November, consumption (Figure 1) and electricity prices went up. Whether this will continue in the coming months of the winter period remains to be seen. The...

Financial compensations to businesses for high electricity prices continue through 2023

The mechanism of financial compensation for non-household consumers in Bulgaria, including companies, hospitals, schools, administrative institutions, religious temples and others, will be extended until the end of 2023. This was decided by the members of the Parliament (MPs) on...

Guarantees of origin prices soar

On 20 September, Hungarian energy exchange HUPX organized the first guarantees of origin (GO) auction in Europe, where all market participants active in any AIB member had the opportunity to sell GOs. The first pan-European GO market then hold monthly auctions, the second auction...

Development of the network and generation capacities in Bulgaria for the next 10 years

In its ten-year network development plan, the Electricity System Operator (ESO) foresees an insignificant change of gross electricity consumption in Bulgaria. The ESO considers three consumption scenarios presented in the figure below: The scenario of the integrated national...

Comparison of electricity prices and wages in the region

Hungary, where the average salary is 885 euros the price of electricity per kilowatt hour is 9.48 euro cents. However, there are countries in the region with lower incomes, but at the same time with higher electricity bills. For example, it is Bosnia and Herzegovina, where the...

Compensation program for all business consumers till the end of 2022

At its last meeting, the Council of Ministers approved the new program for compensating the costs of electricity for non-household end consumers, as well as network operators for purchasing electricity to cover technological losses. The two programs cover the period from...

IGB started commercial exploitation

The President of the EC and heads of state welcomed the first quantities of natural gas delivered through the interconnector Greece – Bulgaria (IGB) during an official event in Sofia; the gas pipeline became operational on the first day of the new gas year – October 1, 2022. The...

On 1st of October launch the 15-minute settlement period

The implementation of the 15-minute settlement period in the balancing market started today, October 1st. Until now, the settlement period was 1 hour. The introduction of a settlement period of 15 minutes is in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2017/2195 of 23.11.2017 and is a...

EC adopts mandatory measures to address the energy crisis

EU energy ministers reached a political agreement on a regulation on an emergency intervention to address high electricity prices. The regulation will be formally adopted by written procedure in the coming days. The European commission (EC) decides to intervene because gas and...

New balancing model as a result of amendments in the electricity trading rules

This article is published in the September issue of Utilities magazine. At the beginning of September, it is expected that the new Electricity Trading Rules (ETR) will come in force and will be applied at the beginning of October. The changes in ETR, which were proposed by the...

The energy exchange pays a 7.8 million dividends to the stock exchange

Independent Bulgarian Energy Exchange EAD (IBEX) will distribute its entire profit for 2021 in the amount of BGN 7.8 million as a dividend to its sole owner – the Bulgarian Stock Exchange AD (BSE). This was decided by the board of directors of BSE, which accepted the...

15-minute settlement period is scheduled to start on October 1st

According to the agreement between EWRC, ESO and IBEX, the actual implementation of the 15-minute settlement period on balancing market is expected to start on October 1, 2022. According to ESO, the operator was ready with its introduction already on July 1 this year. The delay...

Proposed amendments in the market and power exchange rules

The Energy and water regulatory commission (EWRC) held public discussions on draft rules for amending and supplementing the Electricity trading rules /ETR/ and the Operation rules of IBEX (power exchange rules). The amendments to the Electricity Trading Rules introduce a number...