Day-ahead electricity prices surged across most of Southeast Europe on Monday, October 26, as the return of weekday demand tightened regional power markets. Serbia recorded the highest price in the region at €285.08/MWh, narrowly ahead of North Macedonia at €284.87/MWh.
Serbia’s SEEPEX price increased by €21.4/MWh compared with Sunday, while Romania climbed nearly €40 to €271.92/MWh. Hungary reached €267.40/MWh, Bulgaria €263.39/MWh and Greece €258.52/MWh. Croatia, Austria, Italy, Slovenia and Montenegro remained in a lower-priced group, with prices generally between €238/MWh and €243/MWh.
The increase was broad-based. Croatia gained €39.2/MWh day on day, Romania €39.9/MWh, Slovenia €39.1/MWh, Bulgaria €33.8/MWh and Greece €31.1/MWh. Hungary recorded a smaller increase of €8.1/MWh, while Montenegro rose €19/MWh to €238.55/MWh.
The main driver was the return of working-day electricity consumption following the weekend. Aggregate demand across Hungary and the monitored Southeast European markets increased to 31,816 MW, up 3,174 MW, or around 11%, from Sunday.
Despite the stronger demand, regional net imports fell by 336 MW to 4,648 MW, while imports from Austria and Slovakia edged down to 4,632 MW. At the same time, total regional generation increased from 23,657 MW on Sunday to 27,168 MW on Monday, an increase of roughly 3.5 GW.
This means the price surge cannot be attributed solely to a deterioration in the overall regional supply-demand balance. Instead, the data point toward weekday peak-load pricing, combined with cross-border transmission constraints and relatively expensive marginal generation in eastern parts of the interconnected European market.
Serbia stood out as the region’s clearest high-price market. SEEPEX’s €285.08/MWh base-load price was around €18/MWh above Hungary, €22/MWh above Bulgaria and €27/MWh above Greece. It was also roughly €44/MWh higher than Italy.
Serbia’s hourly prices remained elevated throughout the day, ranging from €220/MWh to €375.1/MWh, with the maximum recorded in hour 18. Peak-load power averaged €283.7/MWh, while off-peak electricity averaged €286.5/MWh, indicating that the high prices were not limited to a short evening spike.
North Macedonia recorded an almost identical base-load price of €284.87/MWh, creating a high-price Serbia–North Macedonia pocket above the larger Hungarian, Romanian and Bulgarian markets.
For traders, the Serbian premium remains significant. The price gap with neighboring and Central European markets can create attractive opportunities where transmission capacity is available, while simultaneously increasing procurement costs for Serbian utilities, suppliers and industrial consumers exposed to the day-ahead market.
Germany provided one of Monday’s sharpest moves in the opposite direction. German day-ahead electricity prices jumped from just €13.7/MWh on Sunday to €116.57/MWh, an increase of almost €103/MWh. Even after the rebound, Hungarian power remained €150.83/MWh more expensive than Germany.
The Hungary-Germany spread therefore narrowed substantially, but primarily because German prices recovered rather than because Southeast European prices declined. The large remaining differential continues to highlight the structural east-west price gap within the interconnected European market.
Hungary remained an important transit market between lower-cost Central European supply and tighter eastern markets. Commercial schedules showed significant imports from Austria and Slovakia, while electricity simultaneously flowed east toward Romania. Hungary-to-Romania base-load flows reached around 1,684 MW, rising to approximately 1,920 MW during peak hours.
Bulgaria also showed signs of tightening conditions. Domestic consumption increased to 4,219 MW, while generation stood at 3,931 MW, turning the country into a net importer of around 288 MW after it had recorded a net export of 217 MW on Sunday.
The shift helped push the IBEX price to €263.39/MWh and reinforced the higher-price corridor extending through Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia and North Macedonia. Bulgaria’s changing balance is particularly important because the country serves as a major generation and transit hub for the southern Balkans.
Albania was the main exception to the regional rally. ALPEX prices dropped by €105.1/MWh to €214.76/MWh, leaving the country more than €70/MWh below Serbia. Peak and off-peak prices were broadly similar, averaging €213.4/MWh and €216.1/MWh respectively.
The sharp divergence underlines how individual Balkan bidding zones remain highly sensitive to local supply-demand balances, cross-border schedules and available transmission capacity, even when the broader regional market is moving in the opposite direction.
Forward prices also pointed to continued pressure. Hungarian week 44 power rose €14/MWh to €279.50/MWh, while week 45 increased €23/MWh to €294.50/MWh. November power gained €17/MWh to €272.50/MWh.
The wider fuel complex remained expensive, with CEGH gas at €95.11/MWh, November gas at €95.50/MWh and EU carbon allowances at €86.26/t. Coal forwards also moved higher.
These forward-market movements suggest that traders are not viewing Monday’s price increase simply as a temporary post-weekend effect. Instead, the market continues to price elevated costs and tight conditions across parts of Central and Southeast Europe.
For Southeast European power markets, the key signal remains the persistence of high eastern prices despite stronger regional generation and lower aggregate net imports. Serbia and North Macedonia near €285/MWh, combined with Hungary remaining more than €150/MWh above Germany, highlight the continued importance of transmission constraints and regional marginal pricing.
Until these price spreads narrow significantly, transmission capacity, generation availability and hourly flows between Central Europe and the Balkans are likely to remain the main factors shaping short-term Southeast European electricity trading conditions.
