AOBE PROPOSALS FOR CHANGES IN THE ELECTRICITY MARKET

The Association of the Organizations of Bulgarian Employers sent a letter to the Prime Minister Kiril Petkov with proposals regarding the change of the model of the Bulgarian electricity market in order to ensure long-term supply of the platforms of IBEX.

For more than six months now, Bulgarian business has been exposed to the adverse effects of rising electricity and natural gas prices on a European scale. The price situation on the energy markets puts both small and medium-sized businesses and the large electricity-intensive industry in a difficult position.

We believe that the main defects of the electricity market in our country are:

• lack of long-term supply of basic energy at affordable prices for six-month and annual periods - the supply of bilateral contracts on the market is insufficient, short-term (dominated by weekly contracts), uneven and high prices of the most expensive plants;
• the huge share of short-term trade - about 80%, compared to 30-60% for other markets;
• high activity of trade participants selling the acquired electricity for export - almost 9TWh for the past 2021

In addition to the above, we should note the dominant position of the companies in the BEH EAD group on the electricity market on the supply side - a share of about 70%.

Therefore, together with the developed compensatory mechanism, we propose to take measures to ensure the long-term supply of basic electricity from low-emission sources to meet domestic consumption in the country - through 12-18-24 month contracts. This will ensure price stability for Bulgarian consumers on the free market.