The Bulgarian Energy Exchange is to start functioning in December 2015. The announcement was made during a meeting which aimed at acquainting the potential participants with the principles of the energy market.

The Independent Bulgarian Energy Exchange is a subsidiary of the Bulgarian Energy Holding. Its main activity is to launch a market in the power engineering field with energy products such as electricity, coal, natural gas, etc.

Although the project was expected to start several months ago, it has been slightly delayed. According to experts in the energy field, the delay was due to the will of the authorities to protect the local electricity producers and the local electricity and energy market. Initially, the energy exchange will trade electricity produced at the Kozloduy nuclear power plant, Maritsa Iztok 2 thermal power plant and the water power plants. The negotiations with these companies still continue. The energy exchange allows the country to create mergers with neighboring markets such as the one in Turkey. All registered energy dealers will have the opportunity to buy and resell energy one day in advance. The households will have the chance to step on the free energy market in March next year.

The Executive Director of the Independent Bulgarian Energy Exchange Konstantin Konstantinov told Radio Bulgaria details about the liberalization of the energy market and the energy prices.

“With regard to the liberalization of the energy market I would say that the energy market will only provide a referential market price. This price will be formed in a very transparent and non-discriminative manner. The market price will be formed by the correlation between demand and supply. That is why we believe that that price would be real.”

According to people who participated at the meeting, the free energy exchange will encourage competition in the sector and allow the consumer to choose between various suppliers. Gradually the domestic consumers will have the opportunity to benefit from these options, which would improve the quality of the service provided by the companies in the sector.

Konstantin Konstantinov has more about the changes that are expected to be made after the launch of the energy exchange

“Currently we do not have to make amendments to the Energy Act, in order to start functioning. The only changes that have to be made regard the obligation of the distribution companies to buy the so-called grid losses through the market platform. It would increase our liquidity, business and financial condition. The changes regarding the rules of electricity trade are mandatory. The energy experts from the state energy regulator have assured us that these changes will be made within a month or so.”

The Bulgarian energy experts have not reached a consensus about how the energy exchange would influence the electricity prices. Anton Ivanov from the Bulgarian Energy and Mining Forum contends that the free energy market does not necessarily mean that the electricity prices would go up.

Author: Luiza Lazarova