Bulgarian electricity traders are sceptical that the country’s long over-due electricity exchange will launch in 2015.
An IBEX representative said in response that official information and deadlines will be announced by the end of the year.
The exchange was initially expected to begin operating before the end of this year. In April, state-owned company Independent Bulgarian Energy Exchange (IBEX) received a 10-year licence to set up and operate the bourse.
According to a business plan submitted by the company (see EDEM 3 April 2014), the trading platform was expected to offer daily, weekly, monthly and yearly products with business beginning before the end of this year.
The market is in some disagreement over what a more realistic date will be, with the third quarter of next year described as the earliest possible date by one optimistic source.
Yet there is strong consensus that a 2015 launch is no longer on the cards, with the first half of 2016 now cited as a more realistic date by two sources, and one even raising the prospect of a 2017 launch.
And the doubts come despite insistence from the market that the platform’s launch is “urgent”.
At the end of October energy regulator SEWRC announced that the day-ahead exchange project and a future market coupling project would benefit from funds coming through energy efficiency and renewable energy support programmes.
(Source: © ICIS HEREN - THE ICIS HEREN REPORTS - EDEM 18226 / 20 November 2014; www.heren.com)