ENERGO-PRO Sales assumes its duties as coordinator of a special balancing group

With the launch of the balancing energy market on 1 June 2014, the costs of balancing the electricity system are also visible in the invoices of the customers of the final suppliers

As of June 1, 2014, the Balancing Energy Market was launched in Bulgaria, which requires the costs of balancing electricity paid by domestic customers to be reflected independently in the electricity invoices. The method of charging balancing costs is the same as that applied in the free electricity market. With the launch of the balancing energy market on June 1, 2014, all customers on the Bulgarian electricity market are on an equal footing and see in their invoices all the costs necessary for the operation of the electricity sector.

Bulgarian legislation applies the principle of the European liberalized electricity market, according to which the costs formed in balancing the electricity system are borne by all participants in the electricity market, including domestic consumers and by enterprises, customers of final supplier companies. Balancing costs have always been paid by the final customers, but so far they have been included in the access price due to the Electricity System Operator and have not been independently indicated in the electricity invoices.

As of June 1, 2014, the final supplier — ENERGO-PRO Sales AD is responsible for the distribution of the costs of balancing the electricity system in North-East Bulgaria, and its customers for the first time in July will see in their invoices two new price components included in the final price for each tariff — price for balancing the energy supply system and cost to balance the distribution energy system. The distribution of electricity balancing costs between customers is determined according to the amount of electricity consumed during the relevant period by the respective customer.

The main principle when invoicing domestic customers for the costs of balancing the electricity system is that the final suppliers and electricity distribution companies do not form profits from these costs, but collect and transfer them to the state companies ESO (Electricity System Operator) and NEK in the event of an imbalance, that is, in the presence of a current shortage or surplus of energy in the territory of Western, South-Eastern or North-Eastern Bulgaria.

The DCEFR has set an acceptable threshold for the deviation in the consumption forecasts, which is distributed among customers. The maximum deviation invoiced to the customers of the final suppliers can be 1.5% and to the customers of the distribution network operators - 0.5% of the total cost, which forces the final supplier company to strive to be as accurate as possible in its forecasts of the consumption of domestic customers, because any inaccuracy allowed in the daily forecasts will be at its expense.

The price of the balancing costs currently charged in the invoices is determined according to a developed methodology and will be the same for 6 months, after which an equalization will be carried out in the new balancing price, which ensures that customers will not be harmed and will pay their proportional part of the balancing costs recognized by the DCEFR.

Currently, DCEFR is working on changes to the Electricity Trading Rules in order to achieve further optimization of balancing costs by merging the three balancing groups of customers of final suppliers and network operators in Western, Southeast and Northeast Bulgaria. In different regions, the cost of balancing differs depending on climatic conditions and the peculiarities of consumption in different seasons.

The final supplier, as coordinator of a balancing group, will regularly provide all reported data to the DCEFR, which will continuously monitor the correct application of all regulatory requirements for the formation of the balancing price and its invoicing to the final customers.