From September 20, they are testing the unification of the energy markets of Bulgaria and Romania

The tests for the market integration of the energy markets of Bulgaria and Romania in the Day Ahead segment are expected to start on September 20. This was explained by Angelin Tsachev, Executive Director of the Electricity System Operator during the RE-Source Southeast conference. The event is dedicated to the corporate supply of renewable energy and energy storage opportunities in Southeast Europe, and the media partner is 3eNews.

The implementation of the market merger project with Romania, although a bit delayed for a number of reasons and other market mergers, will enable all market participants to be part of a market merger in the energy market All of Europe. It is these associations that provide security and price stability, Tsachev explained. He confirmed that this is a top priority of ESO and the Bulgarian Independent Energy Exchange. According to Tsachev, it is these associations that facilitate trade and will benefit all Bulgarian consumers, as they will have access to cheap and environmentally friendly electricity, which we all strive for.

According to the Romanian Deputy Chairman of ANRE, Zoltan Nagy-Bege, the market merger of the Day Ahead segment with Bulgaria could take place by the end of October.

A problem with the supply of electricity from Western Europe is the "narrowing" of the Austro-Hungarian border, as well as the Slovak-Hungarian border. "There are restrictions on access to electricity from Western Europe," Tsachev explained. ESO has already asked the European Commission when the problem will be resolved in order to fully free up the flow of energy flows from Hungary to Greece. "We have raised the issue with the EC and we expect a common unanimous opinion from all organizations in order to accelerate the process of increasing the capacity of these two borders. This will enable the energy produced in different latitudes to reach the whole of Europe ", explained the director of ESO. In practice, this border divides Europe in terms of price, he said.

"Our transmission capacity to Romania is currently 1000 MW. It can be for 1700 MW, but colleagues have not yet fully completed their connectivity with other markets. The capacity of this connection will increase in the future, Tsachev explained. He reminded that the energy connection to Greece has a capacity of 700 MW. And with the completion of the second power line, which is currently under construction, the capacity between the two markets will increase to 1,500 MW.

450 mW. new projects in just 11 months

Regarding the production of green energy in our country, only for the last 11 months ESO has received applications for connection of over 450 MW of RES projects at medium voltage level. The total number of applications for connection received is 8500 MW. "There is a huge interest in building and connecting new facilities, all this is only on a market basis. Therefore, I believe that it is not necessary for these projects to be supported with funds from the Recovery Plan, Tsachev explained during the conference.

 

He gave the example of the region of Lyubimets and Svilengrad, where more than 600 MW of solar energy production facilities have already been announced for connection. The problem of the region is that there is no electricity transmission network. There is one main power line, which is for Ivaylovgrad HPP. That is why it is now necessary to start investing in the construction of the electricity transmission network in this region.

He was adamant that the development of renewable energy in our country inevitably goes through the development of the network. "In order to be able to join these potential plants, a complete restructuring of the network is needed. Now the system operates with concentrated capacity, and in the next 4 to 6 years the power system will be mainly with decentralized production. "This is a huge challenge for the network," Tsachev said.

There is also room in this energy market for energy storage systems. But batteries cannot completely replace the current generating base capacities. The reason is that they cannot provide the secondary manual regulation of the power system. If these storage systems are created in the renewable energy parks, then they can supply energy in the moments of peak demand, Tsachev believes.

According to him, in the future the balancing energy market will be especially important, given the high energy prices. This market is also becoming important given the recent changes in the EU, in terms of merging balancing markets with other markets and ESO's participation in balancing platforms. This reduces the burden on the participants in the Electricity Market.

ESO has also started giving preliminary opinions to investors in order to facilitate the procedures for creating a detailed zoning plan. "We have distributed a serious amount of opinions so that investors can continue the accession procedures," Tsachev explained, adding that the process of approving and joining new RES projects itself is not easy and time consuming.