Bulgaria's National Electricity Transmission Company (NETC)will be able to amp up electricity exports to UCTE members from October when power-lines destroyed during the war in Bosnia are expected to be restored, NETC chief engineer Mityo Hristozov said on Monday. Bulgaria joined UCTE, the association of transmission system operators in continental Europe shunned only by Britain and the Scandinavian states, in 2003. The replug of the power-lines on Bosnian territory restores fully the synchronous interconnectivity in the UCTE area and provides back-up power in the case of major outages, Hristozov said, noting that it will be possible to export energy to Italy without using the power-line through Greece. NETC will offer potential UCTE client rates that are competitive with European tariffs, the official said. The liberalisation of Bulgaria's energy market has officially reached 15%, providing eligible consumers with the option to pursue direct electricity supply deal with the producers but for various reasons no such contracts have been signed yet. NETC's power exports jumped by 35% year-on-year in January-July but that was mainly due to the fact that May and June 2003 saw zero exports after the collapse of a power purchase deal with Ankara. At the moment, NETC provides electricity to Romania, Greece, Macedonia and Montenegro. The state power utility is in talks with Greece on a two-year deal for the export to the neighbouring country of 100-150MW daily.