site.btaEnergy and Water Regulatory Commission Discusses Draft Amendments to Electricity Trading Rules

The Energy and Water Regulatory Commission (EWRC) held a public consultation on Tuesday on a draft supplement to the Rules for Electricity Trading (RET), the regulator said in a press release. The draft and the working group’s report were published in advance on EWRC’s website and on the Public Consultation Portal, in line with transparency requirements.

Representatives of the three electricity distribution companies, Sofia Municipality, and the Bulgarian Association of Electrical Engineering and Electronics took part in the consultation.

EWRC said the proposed additions are needed to align the rules with recent amendments to the Energy Act and to meet Bulgaria’s commitments under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan to stimulate electricity generation from renewable energy sources. As an annex to the RET, EWRC has approved a Methodology for Calculating Quantities of Generated, Allocated for Consumption and Sold Electricity, which is to be promulgated in the State Gazette.

According to the regulator, the changes create a regulatory framework for the development of citizen energy communities and renewable energy communities, and encourage the deployment of self-consumption generation capacities. This is expected to reduce transmission losses and lead to more predictable energy costs and lower network service charges.

The draft regulates the inclusion of new market participants, the structure and activities of trading participants, contractual relations, registration and deregistration conditions for groups, and data exchange between network operators, suppliers and members of energy communities.

EWRC said all participants supported the proposed additions as an important step for enabling energy communities to operate on the electricity market. Distribution companies raised the issue of having an administrative authority handle registrations and called for sufficient technological time to implement the Methodology.

EWRC Chair Plamen Mladenovski said registration should in principle be carried out by the Sustainable Energy Development Agency, but this would require legislative changes. Given tight deadlines under the Recovery and Resilience Plan and an infringement procedure against Bulgaria for failure to transpose an EU directive, the registration obligation has temporarily been assigned to distribution companies.

Stakeholders have 14 days to submit written opinions. Final adoption of the RET amendments is scheduled for January 29, 2026, after which they will be sent for promulgation in the State Gazette.

In 2025, Energy Minister Zhecho Stankov said the state aims to create the country’s largest energy community, involving the Electricity System Operator and the Bulgarian Development Bank, to help address financing and energy balancing challenges.