The Bulgarian Electricity System Operator is the first TSO in the Southeast Europe to Successfully Connect to the Balancing Energy Platform PICASSO

10.02.2025 г.

On 10 February 2025, ESO successfully connected to the PICASSO platform, becoming the first transmission system operator in the Southeast Europe connected to the balancing platform.
The European platform is focused on cross-border exchange of balancing energy from activated automated frequency restoration reserve (aFRR). 26 transmission system operators, members of the European TSO association ENTSO-E, are involved in the international project PICASSO.
The PICASSO platform provides for common rules for activation of balancing energy from aFRR for all connected transmission system operators. 
One of the key changes after connecting to the platform is the method of pricing of the balancing energy upon activation of the aFRR service. The platform shall collect and rate all available offers for balancing energy from aFRR according to their price and compile a common merit order list (CMOL). The functioning of the European balancing platform shall optimize, within the framework of cross-border exchange, the activation of balancing energy between the separate control blocks in the Continental Europe synchronous zone, taking into account the available transmission capacity.
By successfully connecting to the PICASSO platform the Bulgarian electricity transmission system operator fulfils its legal obligations arising from Article 21 of Regulation (ЕU) 2017/2195 of the European Commission of 23 November 2017 establishing guidelines for electricity balancing.
ESO EAD is the first operator of the Southeast Europe region to connect to PICASSO and currently it has no common electrical border with transmission system operators which are effectively participating in the project. There will be no effective exchange of balancing energy from aFRR before the connection to the platform of at least one transmission operator from any of Bulgaria’s neighbour countries.  Due to this objective reason, the marginal price for Bulgaria used as a factor in the Balancing Energy Pricing Methodology shall remain determined by the activated local sources of balancing services.
The connection of ESO to the European balancing platform PICASSO is a key step in the process of formation of a resilient and efficient common European energy market.