The procedures for the functioning of the "Day Ahead" union with Greece were presented by the IBEX to the trade participants

The Bulgarian Independent Energy Exchange (IBEX) held a strategic seminar today dedicated to the unification of the Day Ahead market with Greece. The seminar aimed to provide more information about the operation of the market after the start of the merger, as well as to prepare market participants for the upcoming tests, the press service of the BSE said.

Given the importance of the union for the electricity market in Bulgaria and its launch in less than a month, the forum was attended by nearly 100 representatives of 82 companies - participants in the segment "Day Ahead" of the Exchange.

"We expect the positive effects of reunification with Greece to intensify. The Bulgarian electricity market will become fully integrated with the European and Bulgarian consumers, producers and traders of electricity will be able to take full advantage of the advantages that connectivity brings, namely: automatic access, real-time access to offers - buy and offers - sells to market participants from all EU member states, "said Mr. Konstantin Konstantinov, Executive Director of IBEX.

The importance of the forthcoming unification and its benefits for the Bulgarian electricity market were emphasized in her speeches during the opening of the seminar by Marinela Petrova - Deputy Minister of Finance, Zhecho Stankov - Deputy Minister of Energy, Plamen Mladenovski - Director of the Electricity Directorate. Heat and Energy ”in EWRC and Angelin Tsachev - Executive Director of the Electricity System Operator.

The leading experts from the IBEX, Nikola Gabrovski and Todor Marinov acquainted the participants with the essence and development of the project for unification of the Day Ahead market with Greece.

The specific procedures, including the backup, through which market connectivity will function, were also presented. Participants had the opportunity to discuss the details from all points of view in a separate panel after the presentations.

It is expected that through the integration of the border with Greece to reduce market concentration, especially supply in Bulgaria, which in turn will increase competition and prevent doubts about the exercise of market power in calculating prices.

Bulgaria's accession to the single European market "Day Ahead" is scheduled for May 11, 2021 (with the first day of delivery May 12) with positive confirmation after completion of all tests and the relevant approvals by the Bulgarian and Greek regulators.

From the very beginning of real stock trading in Bulgaria in 2016, IBEX is a full member of the union of all European stock exchanges - MRC (Multi Regional Coupling), now called SDAC (Single Day Ahead Coupling), as well as SIDC (Single Intraday Coupling).

Transmission operators are also important participants in these organizations. ESO is also among the members. Participation in these mergers enables stock exchange operators, on the one hand, to pool the offers registered by electronic trading systems and, on the other hand, for transmission operators to provide data on available levels of cross-border transmission rights, or so-called capacities.

At present, the clearing prices and clearing volumes of the IBEX are calculated together with the other exchanges in Europe, but without the data on the capacities in question being provided. The market union provides automatic access to Bulgarian participants to the offers of other market participants throughout Europe. And the specific possibility for this access is determined by the capacity levels, ie. how much energy can be physically transferred from one national system to another.