Critical Meteorological Conditions and the Electrical Power Balance in Bulgaria

In accordance with European directives, the liberalization of Bulgarian electricity market began in 2004. Since July 1st 2007 the electricity market was partially liberalized. The open market implies producers, consumers and electricity traders entering into transactions at freely negotiated prices. Currently in Bulgaria there are two segments of the electricity market operating in parallel - a regulated and a liberalized one. The balance of the power generation in the Electrical Power System (EPS) is affected by the respective power generation technologies vulnerable to the meteorological conditions [1, 2, 3, 4]. The underestimation of the critical meteorological conditions can impose problems in the power balance with all resulting technical and financial effects [11]. Studies have been made to take into account the different aspects of power generation technology and data analysis [5, 6, 7]. A generalized approach can help to combine the different sources of information and indices to form prognosis of the power balance in the EPS [8, 9, 10].