ESO Receives €29 Million to Expand and "Smartify" the Grid

The Electricity System Operator (ESO) has received €29 million in grant funding under the Connecting Europe Facility. The funds are earmarked for investments in the country’s electricity transmission network as part of the Bulgarian-Romanian project “CARMEN: Smart Grids Increasing RES and Interconnectivity in the Southeast Europe Region.”

Investments totaling over €59 million will be made on Bulgarian territory, 50% of which is European grant funding.

The project is being implemented by ESO and the Romanian electricity distribution network operator Delgaz Grid, as well as the Romanian electricity transmission operator Transelectrica. The total project budget is nearly €208 million, 50% of which is non-repayable European aid.

The agreement for the grant funding was signed on May 22, 2026, in Copenhagen, Denmark, at an official ceremony during the annual Energy Infrastructure Forum, chaired by European Commissioner for Energy and Housing Mr. Dan Jørgensen.

The project on Bulgarian territory envisages, by the end of 2032, the reconstruction, expansion, and implementation of automated control systems at the “Dobrudzha,” “Varna,” “Gorna Oryahovitsa,” “Mizia,” and “Balkan,” the construction of passive optical rings for a telecommunications network on overhead lines with a total length of over 1,100 km, including two of the interconnections with Romania – the 400 kV "Druzhba" and the 400 kV "Saeedinenie" transmission line, as well as the construction of active optical telecommunications rings at all substations operated by ESO.

The implementation of the project’s investments on Bulgarian territory aims to modernize the power transmission network and increase its capacity in Northeastern Bulgaria to harness the potential for green electricity generation, deploying green hydrogen production technologies, and ensuring the transmission of renewable electricity along the priority North-South corridor.

The project “CARMEN: Smart Grids Increasing RES and Interconnectivity in Southeast Europe” is part of the CARMEN Project of Common Interest, which was included in the European Commission’s second list of priority European projects for the development of trans-European energy infrastructure at the end of 2025.

Translated with DeepL.