The most attractive opportunities in South East Europe’s electricity market are no longer only in building more generation. The next value pool is in flexibility.
The reason is structural. Solar capacity is rising quickly, but flexible capacity is not keeping pace. ACER found that South East Europe’s 2024 price spikes were driven largely by the lack of resources able to replace solar generation quickly in the evening, combined with limited cross-zonal capacity and other system constraints.
That creates a clear commercial signal: assets that can move energy across time, reduce imbalances or relieve congestion are becoming more valuable.
Battery storage is the most obvious opportunity. In a solar-heavy system, batteries can charge during low-price midday hours and discharge during evening peaks. They can also reduce renewable imbalance costs, provide ancillary services and help developers improve the bankability of solar projects. In markets where standalone merchant batteries remain difficult to finance, hybrid solar-plus-storage projects may be the first large-scale route.
Wind is another opportunity, especially where its production profile complements solar. A portfolio combining solar, wind and storage can produce a smoother revenue profile than a single-technology portfolio. That matters because lenders increasingly focus on capture prices rather than headline average market prices.
Corporate PPAs are also gaining importance. Industrial consumers want protection against volatility. Developers want predictable revenue. Banks want contracted cash flow. A well-structured PPA can solve all three problems, particularly when it accounts for hourly profile, imbalance allocation, guarantees of origin, change-in-law risk and price-floor mechanics.
Balancing and intraday optimisation are becoming their own business lines. The EU move to 15-minute day-ahead pricing increases the commercial value of accurate forecasting and fast adjustment. Traders, aggregators and virtual power plant operators can monetise flexibility from batteries, industrial load, distributed generation and controllable assets.
Grid-enhancing technologies are another underappreciated opportunity. ACER recommends measures such as dynamic line rating, high-temperature low-sag conductors, better outage coordination and stronger implementation of the 70% cross-zonal-capacity requirement. These are not as visible as solar farms, but they can unlock large system value by allowing more electricity to move through existing infrastructure.
Financial markets show the same direction of travel. EEX reported that European power derivatives volumes grew 11% in 2025 to about 9,330 TWh, with Hungarian power futures up 34% and Greek power futures up 70% from a smaller base. Rising derivatives activity reflects the growing need to hedge volatile power prices, even though ACER notes that long-term forward-market liquidity remains limited beyond two years in many European markets.
The best opportunities in SEE therefore sit at the intersection of physical assets and financial optimisation. A battery is more valuable if it can access intraday, balancing and ancillary-service markets. A solar project is more valuable if paired with storage or a strong PPA. A trader is more valuable if it can manage carbon, congestion and 15-minute exposure. A utility is more valuable if it owns flexible assets rather than only baseload or merchant renewables.
South East Europe’s energy transition will require huge volumes of renewable generation. But the highest margins may come from the assets and services that make that generation usable.
The money is in flexibility because flexibility is what the system lacks.
