On October 8, 2019, the amendments to the Energy Act were published in the State Gazette. Most of the changes are related to the gas market, but some of them are relevant to the electricity market:

– The Energy and Water Regulatory Commission (EWRC) will approve the operational rules of the Independent Bulgarian Energy Exchange (IBEX). Most probably, the approval process will hold a public consultation, at which all market participants will be able to participate with recommendations and proposals. Within 1 month after the publication of the Energy Act, IBEX must submit draft version of the exchange rules for consideration to the Commission.

– End customers and traders will not pay the “Obligations to society” fee for the quantities of electricity purchased through bilateral contracts with RES producers, commissioned after November 1, 2019. The change aims to incentivize realization of market based renewable energy projects.

The major changes to the Energy Act are related to the gas market and include:

– Bulgartransgaz (the transmission system operator) is expected to establish and operate the gas exchange. The company must submit to the EWRC an application for approval of a trading platform by October 15, 2019. Then the Regulator must approve the gas exchange platform by December 1, 2019.

– the rules of the gas exchange will be approved by EWRC following the same procedure as the one applicable for the rules of the energy exchange;

– All transactions for short-term products and products with delivery of up to 1 year, including bilateral transactions, will have to be concluded on the gas exchange. This is market model similar to that of the electricity market. It is envisaged that from January 1, 2025, all transactions, except those for short-term standardized products, might be concluded outside of the gas exchange.

– The public supplier – Bulgargaz is obliged to offer the following volumes in up to two auctions during the respective year:

     1. 220 GWh in 2020;

     2. 4 281 GWh in 2021;

     3. 6 342 GWh in 2022;

     4. 8 720 GWh in 2023;

     5. 11 099 GWh in 2024

These quantities are intended only to cover the domestic consumption. If part of the gas offered is not sold, then Bulgargaz has to organize an additional auction/s, where gas can also be bought for export.

– Transmission system operators and natural gas storage facility operators have to purchase natural gas for their own needs, including technological needs and for balancing, on the organized natural gas market.

Sources: State Gazette

At the end of last week two members of parliament – Delyan Dobrev and Valentin Nikolov submitted to the National Assembly proposition for amendments of the Energy Act.

The bill aims to continue the process of liberalization of the electricity market in the country and incorporates several major changes that will have an effect on the market.

These changes include:

• Abolishment of the export fee on the electricity for export originating from Bulgaria;
• Introduce “estimates of the monthly availability for electricity generation from producers from which the public provider (National electric company) buys electricity and the amount of electricity that the public provider is expected to sell to the end suppliers.”;
• Further opening of the liberalized market via mandatory sale through IBEX for generators from RES with installed capacity between 1 MW and 4 MW.

The remaining amendments: define a framework for premiums for new co-generation power plants; the possibility of paying the 5% fee from the small RES to the Security of electricity system fund once per year; regulates the parallel procedures for adoption of prices from the Regulator (EWRC); possibility for customers with supplied capacity of 10kW and over 10kW to request replacement of their meters with smart meters, all costs should be paid by the customer.

Some of the changes, such as the RES producers with installed capacity between 1 and 4 MW entering the liberalized market and the abolishment of the export fee, are planned to come into force on 1^st of July 2019.

It is envisaged that the bill will be voted in the Energy Commission this Wednesday (27.03.2019). Propositions and opinions on the bill are accepted till 29 March 2019 at: komisia_energetika@parliament.bg

The complete text of bill is available at: https://www.parliament.bg/bills/44/954-01-16.pdf