The Bulgarian energy ministry has called a halt to power exports from tomorrow morning, although transits through the country are still permitted. The export cut should boost liquidity on the Ibex power exchange, after state-owned holding company BEH failed to meet its market-making obligations earlier this week as its output was prioritised for the regulated market.
Exports of Bulgarian power will stop at 01:00 EET tomorrow because of the continuing extreme winter conditions leading to a strain in the balance between supply and demand on a regional level. The energy ministry's order will not impact the transit of electricity through Bulgaria but only exports of Bulgarian origin. The order will remain in place until the full recovery of the necessary reserve capacities in the electricity system. Greek gird operator Admie halted exports over 11-12 January for system security reason, but exports are due to restart tomorrow.
All conventional power plants in Bulgaria are operating today apart from the Bobov Dol 2, Maritsa Istok 3 and Ruse 4 units, with the latter partially responsible for the failure to activate the cold reserve on Monday that led to a denied call on emergency imports from Romania, according to data from system operators group Entso-E. ESO data show that the large hydropower plants are operating, albeit far from full capacity because of low hydropower reservoir levels. Despite the high load on the electricity system, Bulgaria had continued exporting to neighbouring countries at around 500MW since the beginning of the year.
The cut in exports will increase liquidity on the Ibex exchange and potentially weigh on domestic power prices. BEH had reduced the volumes it is obliged to offer on Ibex as power was directed to the regulated market amid high demand. The Ibex had hit a record high of €125.90/MWh for delivery on 10 January.
