The energy
law transposing into national legislation Directives 2009/77/EC and 2009/73/EC
was presented to MPs on February 15, 2012. Bulgaria’s power market opened to
competition in theory in 2007 but only big industrial plants can currently
choose their power distributor.
The
proposed amendments to the energy law are a step forward to unbundling of
networks. Bulgaria has chosen to implement the unbundling through the model of
Independent Transmission Operator (ITO).
One of the
main responsibilities of the ITO is to develop and annually update a 10-year
development plan for the transmission network. The development of that plan
should be coordinated with the energy regulator (SEWRC), which, in turn, is to
consult all actual or potential network users on in an open and transparent
manner.
The bill also introduces new rules on the functioning of retail markets
and new rules on the independence and powers of national regulator.