Bulgaria's Energy Exchange Starts Electricity Trade

After more than a month in trial mode, the Independent Bulgarian Energy Exchange (IBEX) begins trading electricity on Tuesday, its CEO has said.

As many as 17 companies can take part in the first "real" session of IBEX, out of 25 that have submitted requests to do so.

"The Bulgarian energy market is not big at all. This is a good start with regard to the number of participants," Konstantin Konstantinov, CEO of IBEX, has told the Bulgarian National Radio.

"We created an exchange market of electricity that in its essence is a wholesale market. Guaranteeing transparency and the non-discriminatory way in which every company meeting certain conditions could participate, competition is thus created, and when we create competition on a market... we actually get the prices influenced only by the levels of demand and supply of a certain item."

State-owned Maritsa Iztok 2 thermal plant, the Kozloduy nuclear plant, and the National Electricity Company (NEK) are also take part in trade.