Independent Bulgarian Energy Exchange (IBEX) has reported a traded volume record on the day-ahead market in 2019. A total of 8.4 TWh was traded through the IBEX’s day-ahead platform representing a year-to-year growth of 43.14 %. December saw a monthly day-ahead trading record with volumes of 873,270 MWh achieving all-time high results on the monthly basis since the launch on 19 January 2016. A strong increase of the traded volumes on intraday market has also been reported by IBEX. During 2019 the intraday market grew almost 2.5 times compared to 2018 reaching a total of 422,791 MWh. The average load in 2019 was 1,158.3 MWh.
In 2019, the delivered volumes on the centralized market for bilateral contracts (CMBC) amounted to 16,520,258 MWh. The total delivered volume on CMBC exceeded 37.5 TWh since its launch. IBEX welcomed a significant number of new trading participants during the last year. The highest number of new participants has been recorded for the intraday market where the membership contracts increased from 43 in 2018 to 57 by the end of 2019. On the day-ahead market three companies were admitted reaching 76. At the end of 2019, 64 companies participated in CMBC.
IBEX has started electricity trading on 19 January 2016 as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bulgarian Energy Holding (BEH). The energy exchange was developed in partnership with Nord Pool Spot. The Centralized Market through Bilateral Contracts (CBMC) on IBEX has been launched in October 2016, while intraday trading was introduced in April 2018. In February 2018, the Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSA) has acquired 100 % of the capital of IBEX for some 2.6 million euros.