Bulgaria's grid operator ESO again pays too little attention to the internal transmission network and its links to local distribution grids, one of the distributors has said. The criticism came from Elektrorazpredelenie Yug (ER Yug) at a public hearing on ESO's ten-year grid plan for 2026–2035, held by the energy and water regulator KEVR.
KEVR will adopt the plan at a closed meeting on 11 November. KEVR chair Plamen Mladenovski set the date.
Mladenovski and commission members Blagoy Golubarev and Tasko Ermenkov agreed with ER Yug. Mladenovski and Golubarev think the plan is professionally done from a transmission point of view. But they say that, as in past years, it pays too little attention to the link with the grids that carry power to consumers.
"Our main concern is that the development of the internal transmission network and its links to the distribution grids again get too little weight and attention in the plan," said ER Yug representative Shteryu Radev.
He said the company sent ESO a detailed opinion and a list of sites. Radev said the sites appear in the document only as a formality, with no assessment. He thinks ESO treats the grid as a collection of separate connections, and that this cannot go on. In his view, the transmission and distribution grids must grow together under one plan.
Radev said the lack of work on the internal grid already causes real problems around Plovdiv and in other areas where industry is growing fast. New investment is arriving there, requests for connections and new capacity keep rising, and there is no longer enough room to link up to the grid. A few years ago this hit new power plants. Lately it more often hits new sites that only use power.
ER Yug was also criticised. The company must draw up its own official plan for developing its distribution grid, but it does not. This gap is the official reason why its requests do not carry enough weight in ESO's plan.
Elektrorazpredelitelni Mrezhi Zapad backed the document. Its representative Kristina Kotseva said ESO included the sites the company proposed. KEVR called on ESO and the distribution companies to hold more productive talks with each other.
Ivan Stoyanov, deputy director of ESO's central dispatch department, presented the plan. He said it meets the law and follows the National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan. The plan sets out scenarios for power output, new capacity and grid growth. It also covers the difficulties of the duty to connect new sites, especially energy storage systems. Most of these systems have been connected in the past two years.
"At the moment we are among the top operators in continental Europe for storage systems," Stoyanov said. He added that they help the system work, but also bring problems that must be solved quickly.
Maria Krasteva, operations director of the Bulgarian Wind Energy Association, also attended the meeting. The plan provides for 747 megawatts of wind capacity by 2035. Krasteva said this falls short of the national target of more than 2,000 megawatts of onshore wind farms, plus offshore farms.
Krasteva asked ESO for more openness and timely advance information on coming repairs and rebuilding work on the grid.