site.btaPoliticians Support Business Proposals to Liberalize Electricity Market in Bulgaria

Politicians from GERB-UDF, Continue the Change, Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF), BSP for Bulgaria and Democratic Bulgaria supported business proposals to liberalize the electricity market in Bulgaria during the third edition of the 2023 Powers Summit forum.

Delyan Dobrev from GERB-UDF reported that the first step to liberalize the energy market has been taken - a final date has been set for liberalization of the wholesale market from the middle of next year, and from the end of 2025 for the retail market.

Dobrev stressed that the details of the liberalization of the wholesale market need to be clarified, but noted that there are already results - last year Bulgaria doubled its installed capacity of photovoltaics. At the moment, the construction of 4,500 megawatts of photovoltaics, with a capacity of 30 kilowatts to 4 megawatts, has been announced. Dobrev pointed out that this would mean BGN 4.5 billion in Bulgarian investments.

Radoslav Rybarski, MP from Continue the Change, stressed that Parliament should reject the President's veto on the changes to the Energy Act. An information campaign on market liberalization needs to be presented to the public, he argued.

Vladislav Panev from Democratic Bulgaria, said he supports the liberalization of the electricity market. The energy obtained from renewable energy sources brought down the prices and now efforts are being made to have zero electricity prices at noon and in the summer. Panev said that the main risks in this regard are populism, the recession that is already a fact in Western Europe and which will reduce investment and energy consumption, and the state of the electricity grid, where he hopes for more investment through the Recovery and Resilience Plan. "I strongly hope that the President's veto will be overcome in order to move forward with the reforms," Panev said.

Tasko Ermenkov, Chairman of the BSP Energy Council, pointed out that household consumers are only 10% of the total electricity market and do not affect whether the market is free. Liberalization is not just a mantra, it is based on competitive prices already at the investment level, he said.

MRF MP Ramadan Atalay stressed the need to find a balance between the interests of consumers and energy producers, and to implement European directives. It is necessary to refine the bills on energy, because there are a number of gaps in them, especially in the texts for household consumers, said Atalay.