EWRC Chairman Assoc. prof. Ivan Ivanov had a work meeting with Mrs. Gunn Oland from the Water Resources and Energy Directorate (NVE) to the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy of the Kingdom of Norway regarding project activities of "Implementation of Euro Electricity Market in Bulgaria – II phase" Project. Mrs. Oland's visit to Bulgaria was in connection with the project working meetings carried out with the participation of EWRC experts focusing on Regulator’s electricity market monitoring functions. The meeting was attended by EWRC member Mrs. Evgenia Haritonova and experts from Nord Pool Consulting.

At the meeting, Assoc. prof. Ivan Ivanov and the project leader from Norwegian side Mrs. Oland discussed the results of the activities done so far and stressed that they were implemented successfully. According to EWRC Chairman, that would increase the capacity of experts for the application of effective practices in the area of market regulation in compliance with the monitoring and coordination responsibilities of national regulators.

He notified the guests that the Bulgarian national regulator had taken all necessary steps relating to market liberalization and the guaranteed equal treatment of participants - standardized load profiles /SLP/ had been approved, providing households with the possibility to change their supplier, Electricity Market Rules had been adopted, establishing the power exchange regulations, the necessary software and complete infrastructure had been purchased in order by mid-2016 the Bulgarian energy exchange to be able to operate bilateral contracts trading. The last PX element - "intraday market" is about to start in early 2017, added Assoc. prof. Ivanov.

"Measures undertaken by EWRC so far are undoubtedly steps in the right direction", said Mrs. Oland. She stressed that the introduction of SLP was a very important step because it created opportunities for households’ market liberalization. Electricity market monitoring has a core importance and that is the topic of the ongoing discussion within the European regulatory authorities, which are about to draw up guidelines.

During the conversation Mr. Ivanov and Mrs. Oland expressed their common view that the energy exchange functioning in all its segments enhances the role of market monitoring carried out by the Regulator. In order to increase EWRC expertise in terms of monitoring, a market monitoring handbook shall be drafted within the project to cover all procedures of the process in accordance with the REMIT requirements. Special attention was paid to the priority of data collection and processing concerning power exchange participants and for this purpose the Regulator will have a special unit equipped with systems for data processing. "Data collection is crucial for the successful monitoring implementation and the Commission will make every effort in this direction," said EWRC Chairman Ivan Ivanov. It was specified that within the joint project Norwegian experts will conduct on-site practical training of the expert group responsible for market monitoring and training in Norway is scheduled as well. It is envisaged to create technical capabilities for EWRC to receive the necessary data from ACER, which will allow closer integration of the Bulgarian regulator with the informational bases at European level.

"Implementation of Euro Electricity Market in Bulgaria – II phase" Project is being realized and financed under the European Economic Area (EEA) Financial Mechanism 2009-2014 and is about 1 520 0000 euros. The Energy and Water Regulatory Commission is the Project Promoter, headed by EWRC’s member Mrs. Evgenia Haritonova, together with the Norwegian regulator as a Partner. The main objective of the project, which was launched at the end of 2014, is to support the creation of a competitive electricity market in Bulgaria, fully integrated with the European internal electricity market, in accordance with EU legislation and commitments of ACER.