Bulgaria and Macedonia are considering a move to couple their day-ahead electricity markets, energy news provider ICIS says. 

Konstantin Konstantinov, CEO at the Independent Bulgarian Energy Exchange (IBEX), is quoted as saying he hopes to sign a preliminary contract with Macedonia by the beginning of February.  

The latter country has no exchange of its own but is a contracting party of the Energy Community and has taken on the commitment to coupling its spot market with at least one neighbour by the middle of next year.  

The Energy Community is an organization uniting the EU, Norway and several third countries in Eastern and Southeast Europe with the aim of extending the EU internal energy market.

According to ICIS, Macedonia's move means it may "most likely used IBEX's platform instead of opening its own separate exchange."

IBEX released last week a statement about Bulgarian and Macedonian energy representatives meeting in Sofia work a workshop to discuss possibilities to integrated the day-ahead markets. 

The event, dated December 21, explored the move as a means to "increase cooperation at regional level and to deepen the energy market integration in the region of Southeast Europe."

Konstantinov also says trade will probably start after the winter supply crisis is over, with Bulgaria having halted electricity exports on Friday due to the harsh weather conditions.