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The sustainable development of enterprises is based on three pillars: economic, social, and environmental. Sustainable development aims to limit climate change and its negative impact on the natural environment. The main aim of this paper is to assess the impact of selected energy economy factors (government expenditure, environmental taxes, outlays on renewable energy sources, prices of futures contracts for CO2 emissions, outlays on R&D, and the EU Emissions Trading System (ETSEU)) on the sustainable development of the energy sectors in Bulgaria, Czechia, Estonia, and Poland, from 2008 to 2022. We use the correlation coefficients, the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS), Vector Autoregressive (VAR) Models, and the simultaneous equation. The research results indicate a variation in the direction and strength of the influence of individual economic factors in the studied countries (p < 0.05). The results can support operational and strategic decisions sustaining the sustainable development of enterprises in the analyzed countries. The results indicate the need to reform selected economic factors, with an emphasis on the increased importance of environmental taxes and the reform of the EU ETS, which is a key tool for reducing greenhouse gas emissions cost-effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper's main objective is to demonstrate the trading and flexibility of services amongst TSOs, DSOs, and Prosumers in a transparent, secure, and cost-effective manner using Blockchain-based TSO-DSO flexibility marketplace (EFLEX). The aim is to look for ways to help DSOs/TSOs be more flexible and more directly engaged in managing energy flows on the network. EFLEX will streamline the needs of both TSO and DSO on the same platform. Based on the paper's proposed services, the pilot service demonstration will be carried out in Bulgaria and Romania, and the main focus will be on congestion management, TSO-DSO Coordination, and Marketplace. The proposed objective is achieved by using Blockchain-based smart contracts and distributed ledger technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change as a challenge we all are facing, varying degree of economic development as a result of COVID-19, the volatility in energy prices and political as well as other factors, most countries have restructured their electricity markets in order to facilitate the use of green renewable energy. The right energy mix in a period of energy transformation is the best strategy for achieving reduction of carbon emissions. Bulgaria is a special case because it has expanded the use of solar and wind energy exponentially, without conducting an adequate preliminary forecast analysis and formulating a parallel strategy for the development and expansion of the energy storage infrastructure. In this regard, the article is focused on how the power energy market is structured with the increasingly large-scale and global penetration of renewable energy sources as primary energy sources, observing several key factors influencing the energy transition. Due to the cyclical nature of energy production and the necessity for a smooth and efficient transition, a long-term seasonal storage plan should be considered. Furthermore, solar energy production facilities have a greater share of installed power, but wind power facilities generate a roughly equivalent amount of electric energy over the course of a year. One of the aims of this research is to discover an appropriate model for predicting the electricity output of wind and solar facilities located in Bulgaria that can be used to ease the transition process. Based on thorough data analysis of energy production over the past 11 years and 5 months, our findings suggest that a SARIMA model might be appropriate, as it takes into account the seasonal cycles in the production process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Green Deal and increased nutritional needs are driving factors in human activities nowadays. Agriculture is an essential economic sector that can profit from the application of renewable energy sources by the assimilation of off-grid, arid and barren terrains. Power supplied by hybrid systems for water pumping is a solution for overcoming the stochastic character of the renewable energy sources. This paper presents a sizing methodology for a hybrid system with wind and PV generation and water tank storage, based on the consideration of the entire energy conversion chain with energy models and a one-year operation simulation. The PV generator is modeled using a reduced Durisch's model, while for the wind generator a piecewise interpolation is used. The methodology is applied for sites in Bulgaria with specific agricultural crops and meteorological data. Combinations of PV (different technologies) and wind (different types) generators and water tank capacities are considered and discussed. The combinations are compared on the basis of three criteria: the investment cost, the satisfaction of crop requirements and system oversizing. The possibility for the introduction of battery storage is also examined. The results show some trends in the hybrid system sizing and the possibility to apply the proposed methodology for various sites, generators and crops. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considering the necessity of achieving economic development by keeping the quality of the environment, the aim of this paper is to study the impact of economic growth on GHG emissions in a sample of Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries (V4 countries, Bulgaria and Romania) in the period of 1996–2019. In the context of dynamic ARDL panel and environmental Kuznets curve (EKC), the relationship between GHG and GDP is N-shaped. A U-shaped relationship was obtained in the renewable Kuznets curve (RKC). Energy consumption, domestic credit to the private sector, and labor productivity contribute to pollution, while renewable energy consumption reduces the GHG emissions. However, more efforts are required for promoting renewable energy in the analyzed countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Italy, Greece, and, to a lesser degree, Bulgaria have experienced fast growth in their renewable generation capacity (RESc) over the last several years. The consequences of this fact include a decrease in spot wholesale prices in electricity markets and a significant effect on cross border trading (CBT) among neighboring interconnected countries. In this work, we empirically analyzed historical data on fundamental market variables (i.e., spot prices, load, RES generation) as well as CBT data (imports, exports, commercial schedules, net transfer capacities, etc.) on the Greek, Italian, and Bulgarian electricity markets by applying the Granger causality connectivity analysis (GCCA) approach. The aim of this analysis was to detect all possible interactions among the abovementioned variables, focusing in particular on the effects of growing shares of RES generation on the commercial electricity trading among the abovementioned countries for the period 2015–2018. The key findings of this paper are summarized as the following: The RES generation in Italy, for the period examined, drives the spot prices in Greece via commercial schedules. In addition, on average, spot price fluctuations do not affect the commercial schedules of energy trading between Greece and Bulgaria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On the path towards the decarbonization of the electricity supply, flexibility and demand response have become key factors to enhance the integration of distributed energy resources, shifting the consumption from peak hours to off-peak hours, optimizing the grid usage and maximizing the share of renewables. Despite the technical viability of flexible services, the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions has not been proven. Traditionally, emissions are calculated on a yearly average timescale, not providing any information about peak hours' environmental impact. Furthermore, peak-hours' environmental impacts are not always greater than on the base load, depending on the resources used for those time periods. This paper formulates a general methodology to assess the potential environmental impact of peak-hourly generation profiles, through attributional life cycle assessment. This methodology was applied to five different countries under the INVADE H2020 Project. Evaluation results demonstrate that countries like Spain and Bulgaria could benefit from implementing demand response activities considering environmental aspects, enhancing potential greenhouse gas reductions by up to 21% in peak hours. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the complexity of electric systems increases, so does the required effort for the monitoring and management of grid operations. To solve grid performance issues, smart grids require the exchange of higher volumes of data, high availability of the telecommunication infrastructure, and very low latency. The fifth generation (5G) mobile network seems to be the most promising technology to support such requirements, allowing utilities to have dedicated virtual slices of network resources to maximize the service availability in case of network congestions. Regarding this evolving scenario, this work presents the Smart5Grid project vision on how 5G can support the energy vertical industry for the fast deployment of innovative digital services. Specifically, this work introduces the concept of network applications (NetApps), a new paradigm of virtualization that are envisioned to facilitate the creation of a new market for information technology (IT), small and medium enterprises (SMEs), and startups. This concept, and the open architecture that facilitates its implementation, is showcased by four real-life 5G-enabled demonstrators: (1) automatic fault detection in a medium voltage (MV) grid in Italy, (2) real-time safety monitoring for operators in high voltage (HV) substations in Spain, (3) remote distributed energy resources (DER) monitoring in Bulgaria, and (4) wide area monitoring in a cross-border scenario between Greece and Bulgaria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A comparative analysis of energy poverty transitions and persistence can provide valuable suggestions for long-term policy actions. This study examines the dynamics of energy poverty in 17 European countries based on the longitudinal household data from the EU Survey on Income and Living Conditions, waves 2015–2018. The study pursues two goals. First, we explore households' chances of transitioning in and out of energy poverty in each country following the discrete-time Markov process. On average, the probability to stay in energy poverty is 51.5%, and there is a lot of heterogeneity across countries. Households in Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, and Lithuania are quite close to the energy poverty trap. Second, we identify factors that help energy-poor households leave energy poverty. Demographic, technical, and socio-economic factors are the drivers in escaping energy poverty, which suggests common EU policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The revised EU Renewable Energy Directive first introduced renewable energy communities into the EU policy framework and requires Member States to implement a support framework for them. Given the broad scientific evidence showing the benefits of community energy for a just energy transition, a successful implementation across all Member States is essential. However, the preconditions for developing support frameworks differ largely between EU nations, as some countries have long-term experiences with supporting renewable energy communities (i.e., Germany and Denmark), while in other Member States, renewable energy communities are notably non-existent (i.e., Eastern European nations). With the purpose of providing scientific evidence to support the development of a policy framework for renewable energy communities in Eastern European Member States, this article compares key factors for the development of such communities in Bulgaria and Germany, combining a literature review with expert interviews to collect primary information on Bulgaria. A country analysis puts these factors into the contexts of both countries, while a cross-country comparison demonstrates that there are significant gaps in the support framework of Bulgaria, although these gaps are, to a lesser extent, also present in Germany. We discuss these shortcomings, derive policy recommendations and identify further research needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]