site.btaEnergy Regulator Introduces Specialized Software Model for Market Analysis in 2024

The Energy and Water Regulatory Commission (EWRC) will introduce a specialized software model for analyzing the energy market at the beginning of 2024, the EWRC said. This will dramatically improve the effectiveness of market manipulation monitoring, analysis, detection and reporting.

The software package was developed jointly by a team of IBM, its partner company in Bulgaria IBS-Bulgaria EOOD and the REMIT Directorate. On this occasion, an agreement was signed between the EWRC and IBS-Bulgaria, with which the energy regulator acquired the developed specialized software model free of charge. The agreement was signed by EWRC Chair Ivan Ivanov and IBS – Bulgaria CEO Goran Angelov.

Currently, there is no regulatory institution in the EU that has developed a similar, AI-powered, analytical model or tool to identify data on suspicious transactions that have characteristics of market manipulation in the energy markets, the EWRC pointed out. The implementation of the new energy market analysis model is imperative in view of the significant increase in the number of commercial transactions on the wholesale electricity and gas market since 2022, and in the number of market participants.

The EWRC noted that so far, they have issued three decisions to impose property sanctions on energy companies for established manipulation of the wholesale energy market in accordance with European regulation, against a total of 9 commercial companies with a total value of over BGN 3.5 million.