Serbian day-ahead electricity prices rose by around €34/MWh for Sept. 1 delivery as stronger regional demand and the continued absence of Romanian nuclear generation tightened the Southeast European market. Serbia’s SEEPEX market cleared at €166.25/MWh, up from roughly €132/MWh in the previous session.
Across the region, Romania settled at €177.28/MWh, Hungary at €176.74/MWh, Bulgaria at €174.59/MWh, and Greece at €174.68/MWh. Montenegro remained cheaper at €158.50/MWh, while North Macedonia cleared at €148.46/MWh.
Regional demand and import needs
Regional demand increased by around 2.4 GW day on day to approximately 33.27 GW. Net imports across the monitored Southeast European markets rose to about 2.87 GW. Romania alone required around 1.03 GW of net imports, with nuclear output at zero.
The Romanian shortfall has become one of the principal drivers of regional trading conditions. Cernavodă normally provides a large block of low-carbon baseload supply, and its absence increases Romania’s reliance on coal, gas, hydro, renewable generation and cross-border imports.
Impact on Hungary and Bulgaria pricing
The additional import need can tighten Hungary and Bulgaria because both markets are important potential suppliers into the region. The strongest signal remains the hourly price curve, with Hungarian electricity reaching around €276.50/MWh. Romania climbed to approximately €283/MWh around the evening peak.
The higher evening levels reinforce a structural premium for electricity available after solar generation falls. Daily baseload averages around €175/MWh, but those figures conceal weaker prices during renewable-heavy hours and significantly higher values after sunset.
Batteries, solar revenues and forward signals
The price shape is improving the economics of batteries, reservoir hydro and flexible gas generation. It is also weakening the realised revenues of standalone solar projects that produce most heavily during lower-priced periods.
Serbia’s jump narrowed the large discount to Hungary seen during previous sessions. At the end of August, Serbia traded more than €40/MWh below HUPX despite remaining a net importer, while for Sept. 1 the differential narrowed to roughly €10.50/MWh.
This points to stronger transmission of Central European scarcity into SEEPEX as regional demand increased. Forward markets also reflect continued tightness, with Hungarian Week 37 power indicated around €175.50/MWh, and October trading near €181/MWh.
Nuclear availability, hydrology and seasonal constraints
The indicated forward levels suggest traders do not expect the regional premium to disappear immediately. Hydrology remains weak, Romania’s nuclear availability remains uncertain, and evening demand will become more difficult to cover as solar production declines into autumn.
Additional wind output could soften prices on individual days, while recovery at nuclear plants including Kozloduy and Paks provides some support. However, the wider structure is unchanged: Southeast Europe is adding large amounts of renewable capacity without yet adding an equivalent volume of flexible supply.
The Sept. 1 market therefore reinforces a pattern established during August: the region can move quickly between renewable-driven surplus and severe evening scarcity, leaving power prices highly sensitive to nuclear availability, hydrology and cross-border flows.
