Serbian day-ahead electricity prices climbed by around €34/MWh for Sept. 1 delivery, as stronger regional demand and the continued absence of Romanian nuclear generation tightened conditions across the Southeast European power market.
Serbia’s SEEPEX market cleared at €166.25/MWh, compared with roughly €132/MWh in the previous trading session.
Elsewhere in the region, prices settled at €177.28/MWh in Romania, €176.74/MWh in Hungary, €174.59/MWh in Bulgaria and €174.68/MWh in Greece.
Montenegro remained relatively cheaper at €158.50/MWh, while North Macedonia cleared at €148.46/MWh.
Regional electricity demand increased by approximately 2.4 GW day on day, reaching around 33.27 GW and pushing net imports across the monitored Southeast European markets to roughly 2.87 GW.
Romania alone required about 1.03 GW of net imports, while nuclear generation remained at zero.
The Romanian supply deficit has become one of the main forces shaping regional trading conditions.
Cernavodă normally provides a significant volume of low-carbon baseload generation to the Romanian system.
Its continued absence has increased Romania’s dependence on coal, gas, hydro, renewable output and cross-border imports.
This additional demand can tighten neighboring markets, particularly Hungary and Bulgaria, which are among the region’s key potential suppliers.
The clearest indication of market tightness can be seen in the hourly price curve.
Hungarian electricity prices climbed to around €276.50/MWh, while Romanian prices reached approximately €283/MWh during the evening peak.
The sharp increase highlights the growing premium for electricity available after solar generation declines.
Daily baseload averages of around €175/MWh mask a much wider intraday spread, with weaker prices during renewable-heavy hours and substantially higher values once solar output falls after sunset.
This price structure is improving the economics of battery storage, reservoir hydropower and flexible gas-fired generation.
At the same time, it is putting pressure on the realised revenues of standalone solar projects, which generate most of their output during periods when market prices are often lower.
Serbia’s price increase also narrowed the significant discount to Hungary that had emerged during previous trading sessions.
At the end of August, Serbia had traded more than €40/MWh below HUPX, despite remaining a net electricity importer.
For Sept. 1 delivery, that differential narrowed to approximately €10.50/MWh.
The smaller spread points to a stronger transmission of Central European market tightness into SEEPEX as regional electricity demand increased.
Forward markets are also signalling that elevated prices may persist.
Hungarian Week 37 power was indicated at around €175.50/MWh, while October contracts were trading close to €181/MWh.
These levels suggest that traders do not expect the regional price premium to disappear in the near term.
Hydrological conditions remain weak, Romania’s nuclear availability is uncertain, and meeting evening demand is likely to become increasingly challenging as solar production declines heading into autumn.
Stronger wind generation could ease prices on individual days, while the return of nuclear capacity, including units at Kozloduy and Paks, could provide additional relief.
However, the broader market structure remains largely unchanged.
Southeast Europe continues to add substantial volumes of renewable generation capacity without an equivalent expansion of flexible generation and storage resources.
The Sept. 1 market therefore reinforces a pattern that became increasingly visible during August: the region can shift rapidly from renewable-driven oversupply to severe evening scarcity, leaving electricity prices highly sensitive to nuclear availability, hydrological conditions and cross-border power flows.
