Since the beginning of February, there have been serious difficulties in the western Balkan countries (except Croatia), Romania and Bulgaria in meeting the demand for electricity. The root of this problem is the persistence of very low temperatures, which has led to a significant increase in energy demand. In Bulgaria and Serbia, there was also severe congestion of the transmission network, which threatened to destabilise the power system and cause blackouts. The countries of the region have introduced energy savings programs, and Bosnia & Herzegovina and Serbia have also imposed restrictions on power supplies to industrial customers. In the second week of February, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Macedonia, Serbia and Bulgaria banned the export of electricity. Romania was considering introducing restrictions on both exports and the domestic market.
There is a serious crisis of electricity supply in the western Balkans, and also difficulties on the Romanian market; the restrictions introduced by Bulgaria are primarily intended to stabilise the transmission system, and continued supply to its domestic market is not under threat. The halt to power exports has isolated individual energy markets. The countries hit hardest by this are Albania, Montenegro, Kosovo and Macedonia, which are dependent on electricity supplies from Serbia, and do not have large production capacity of their own. Serbia, despite its serious difficulties, is in a better position, since it can import electricity from Hungary.
The harsh winter has exposed the low level of the western Balkans
