Bulgarian IBEX to roll out 15-minute interval for power delivery in October

The Independent Bulgarian Energy Exchange will introduce a 15-minute product within the intraday electricity market for the Bulgarian-Romanian border on October 1, its Chief Executive Officer Konstantin Konstantinov said.

According to the European Union’s rules, Bulgaria’s Electricity System Operator or ESO has to facilitate the introduction of a 15-minute imbalance settlement period, CEO of the Independent Bulgarian Energy Exchange (IBEX) Konstantin Konstantinov noted in an interview with 3E-news.net. The testing for the introduction of the system within the intraday market segment, together with 15-minute products, has started last month.

Konstantinov revealed that IBEX would introduce an intraday product with a 15-minute delivery interval on October 1 for the Bulgarian-Romanian border. The exchange’s CEO stressed the hour-by-hour system for trading and settlement would continue to operate.

He expressed hope that a single price would be introduced for balancing energy, which has a role to stabilize the system when unplanned fluctuations occur. Renewables like solar and wind power depend on the weather, and it often rapidly changes, so such markets are necessary to help equalize supply and demand.

Konstantinov: Market coupling with Greece in the intraday segment should be completed by the end of the year

IBEX has another important project. Konstantinov said market coupling with Greece in the intraday segment should be completed in the next quarter and that it would integrate his country with the EU.

As market participants get access to a wider area, power prices should become less volatile, but the volume of information necessary to be processed is also increasing.

Turning to the day-ahead market on IBEX, Konstantinov said there are already more than one hundred participants. Most are active on a daily basis both in the Bulgarian market and the entire Central and Southeastern European region, he underscored.

The Bulgarian-Romanian transmission capacity is 2 GW in both directions, Konstantinov asserted.