site.btaBulgaria's Electricity System Operator Works on Two New European Energy Corridors

Electricity System Operator CEO Angelin Tsachev Tuesday said that overcoming the difficulties and creating opportunities for more investment in energy facilities requires infrastructure development. In view of this, ESO is working on the construction of two new European energy corridors to make the most efficient use of green energy, he said at the fourth edition of the Powers Summit, which brings together government representatives, political forces and business to discuss the main challenges and opportunities for Bulgaria. The event takes place in Sofia Tech Park.

"The first corridor is East-West, from Turkiye through Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Albania and Montenegro to Italy. The two-hour time difference between Turkiye and Italy will increase the amount of energy from renewable sources in the peak consumption of those countries," Tsachev said.

"The second corridor is North-South, from Greece through Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Czechia and Poland to Germany," Tsachev said. Again, the idea for this corridor is "to increase renewable energy consumption and to use the full potential" of Southeastern Europe.

In his words, ESO is responding to the challenges with investments: "In the last six years, ESO has made sizable investments in the development of the electricity transmission system. This has allowed us to raise the interconnection capacity, which  currently amounts to the average daily consumption."

In his view, this enables Bulgarian energy producers to sell on the European markets. 

Martin Georgiev, Executive Director of the National Electricity Company, stressed that the company is working on projects for the Batak and Dospat pumped-storage hydropower plants. They will have a great impact on the power system and will contribute to decarbonization. He explained that these projects are in line with the European trend of building pumped storage plants between dams.