22 July 2014 – Black Tuesday of the Bulgarian balancing market
On 1 August 2014 SEWRC declared that the ”balancing market prices threaten the interests of the Bulgarian society” (BG version only) and the spread between the top-up and spill prices is unmatched in Europe.
There is information available now on the web page of ESO on the top-up and spill prices reached in the balancing market during the first three months of its operation. The Black Tuesday happened to be the 22 July 2014. Between 23.00h and 24.00h on this day the imbalance between the top-up and spill prices was the most striking and the prices on which NEK sold top-up reached 1873.41 BGN/MWh, as the prices on which it bought spill were 13.92 BGN/MWh.
After SEWRC’s instructions of 1 August 2014 requirering ESO to change the price calculation method, in order not to allow such drastic differences, the market is cooled down, but nevertheless there are top-up prices in August beyond 1000 BGN/MWh, while the spill prices are negative. Next charts present hourly balancing market prices quoted in the last four days of August.
