On 2nd of November 2017 in Sofia, hotel Balkan was held the second conference from the series Energy Manager’s Forum, organized by Utilities magazine and supported by the Association of traders with electricity in Bulgaria (ATEB). The topic of discussion was “Liquidity and price levels on the Bulgarian electricity market”
The event was officially open by the Deputy Minister of Energy Mr. Zhecho Stankov and the chairman of the Energy and water regulatory commission (EWRC) – assoc. prof. Ivan Ivanov.
The focus of the discussions was the upcoming launch of the intraday market and the changes and amendments of the Electricity trading rules (ETR). Mr. Plamen Mladenovski from EWRC presented the draft version of the new rules in which the intraday market is planned to be restricted only for trading on national level (within Bulgaria). The reason that no cross-border capacities will be allocated on intraday basis is that the rules for their allocation must be harmonized between Bulgaria and the neighboring transmission operators explained Mr. Vasil Hubenov from Electricity System Operator (ESO). He pointed out that the harmonization period usually takes a few months. And because up to know the new ETR were not clear, allocating cross border capacities on intraday basis was not included in the harmonization procedures for 2018.
Trading on the intraday market will be made only through the platform of Independent Bulgarian Energy Exchange (IBEX). This means that it won’t be possible intraday bilateral trading between the market participants outside of IBEX. Another specific for this market segement in Bulgaria is that the Renewable energy generators won’t be able to participate on it until they reach their predetermined (by EWRC) net specific generation. Mr. Mladenovski clarified that the measure is necessary because according to the Energy Act the energy from RE fed into the grid is determined based on the electricity meter indication and not based on submission of generation schedules to ESO. It is expected the intraday market to start operation in the mid of January 2018.
Other change in ETR which provoked further discussion among the conference participants was the abolishment of the option a former supplier to cut the power supply of a customer who has unpaid financial obligations. At the moment this measure is the only functioning mechanism for the supplier to ensure that the customers will pay their last invoice before switching to another supplier. From EWRC explained the reason behind this change was a contradiction of the current ETR with article 123 from the Energy Act.
EWRC as a regulator introduce an opportunity with the new changes and amendments in ETR to provide mandatory instructions on how the ETR should be applied. The final version of the ETR will be approved during a closed-door meeting in EWRC on 7.12.2017 after the end of the on-going public hearing.
In addition the EWRC made a commitment to approve an updated, unified legal framework for the General terms in the contracts of the 3 main distribution system operators (DSOs) in Bulgaria. According to the chairman of EWRC such a change won’t be implemented within the next few weeks, but it will come into force soon. In the new General terms EWRC plans to introduce a sanction in case the supplied electricity by the DSOs does not meet the defined quality requirements.
Source: Publics.bg