CEO of the Independent Bulgarian Energy Exchange (IBEX) Konstantin Konstantinov said the IBEX is expecting to start talks on market coupling with Romania in the first quarter of 2018.
Konstantinov stressed that market coupling with Romania is currently the most realistic option for IBEX, adding that procedures regarding the coupling are already underway. Currently, Romania is a part of 4MMC, which is about to merge with the MRC, another market coupling of which Bulgaria is a member.
Last week, Bulgarian Minister of Energy Temenuzhka Petkova said that IBEX will launch its intraday market by the end of this year. According to original plan, intraday market was supposed to be launched in mid-2017. It has already launched the Centralized Market through Bilateral Contracts (CBMC) on 24 October 2016.
The Independent Bulgarian Energy Exchange (IBEX) has started electricity trading on 19 January 2016. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bulgarian Energy Holding (BEH) and the energy exchange was developed in partnership with Nord Pool Spot. On 18 May, a total of 16,250.6 MWh of electricity with a delivery date of 19 May were traded on IBEX at an average price of 37.1 euros/ MWh, which is current record in traded volume on day-ahead market.
