Bulgaria-Romania day-ahead market coupling completed

The Bulgaria-Romania day-ahead market coupling has been successfully completed today. With the Bulgaria-Romania power market project, their border was integrated under the European single day-ahead market coupling (SDAC) as foreseen by the European Union’s regulation.

The aim of SDAC is to create a single pan-European cross-zonal day-ahead electricity market (DAM). An integrated DAM increases the overall efficiency of trading by promoting effective competition, increasing liquidity and enabling a more efficient utilisation of generation resources across Europe.

With the inclusion of the Bulgarian-Romanian border, a geographical loop has been closed and the Southeast Europe (SEE) region is now fully integrated in the single day-ahead coupling, Bulgaria’s power exchange IBEX announced.

The Bulgaria-Romania market project is implemented by the NEMOs and transmission system operators (TSOs) of Bulgaria and Romania: IBEX, OPCOM, ESO EAD and Transelectrica.

According to IBEX, integration of the Bulgarian-Romanian bidding zone border into SDAC marks is yet another major achievement in the completion of the European target model.

In addition to the HVDC interconnection between Greece and Italy, the Greek and Bulgarian day-ahead markets are now also connected northbound via the Bulgarian-Romanian border with SDAC, IBEX said.

“Today, for the first time, day-ahead cross-zonal capacity between Romania and Bulgaria has been implicitly allocated via the Euphemia algorithm. The implemented price coupling allows for the simultaneous calculation of electricity prices and cross-border flows across the region,” IBEX said.