Market coupling aims to link national day-ahead and intraday electricity trading so cross-border flows can use transmission capacity more efficiently through market-based allocation. The approach depends on legal alignment, exchange readiness, coordination among transmission system operators, regulatory approval, algorithm integration, and operational trust.
How EU single coupling frameworks work
The EU model is built around Single Day-Ahead Coupling (SDAC), which ENTSO-E describes as a mechanism for a pan-European cross-zonal day-ahead market. A common algorithm allocates scarce cross-border transmission capacity while accounting for network constraints. Intraday integration is handled through Single Intraday Coupling (SIC), enabling continuous cross-border trading closer to delivery.
Why coupling is a priority in the Western Balkans
For the Western Balkans, coupling is described as the next major step in a region where EU member states already include it in everyday price formation. The Energy Community has linked electricity market coupling to broader EU-aligned market developments.
Coupling is expected to support improved price discovery by making markets more transparent and liquid than fragmented arrangements. The same structure is also tied to how investors model revenue, traders price congestion, and consumers benefit from dispatch efficiency.
Interconnector use is another driver. Rather than relying primarily on explicit auctions and bilateral scheduling, coupled markets allocate capacity alongside energy trades, which can reduce inefficiencies and make cross-border flows respond to real market conditions.
Link to CBAM and progress on Serbia’s alignment
The Energy Community notes that electricity market coupling is closely linked to CBAM. Under the EU framework, a time-limited exemption may be available for electricity imported from non-EU countries whose electricity markets are coupled with the EU.
Progress is described as underway but not immediate. In June 2026, the Energy Community reported that Serbia was the first Contracting Party to transpose the Electricity Integration Package, meeting conditions for accession to the EU internal electricity market, while European Commission verification and further alignment were still required.
Expected timing for Western Balkan–EU coupling
ADEX’s market-infrastructure view places the first Western Balkan–EU coupling around early 2028 or the beginning of 2029, according to Anže Predovnik, Chairman of the Management Board of ADEX Group and CEO of BSP SouthPool. This indicates that full integration should not be assumed for 2026 or 2027.
The transition period is expected to vary across markets. Serbia may be among the frontrunners, while Albania/Kosovo, Montenegro, and North Macedonia are described as following different paths depending on regulatory and operational readiness.
Operational impacts during and after coupling
The shift is not expected to remove volatility from regional power prices. In some cases, it may transmit EU volatility more directly into Western Balkan markets.
Price convergence effects are highlighted for consumers in lower-price zones that may face stronger alignment with higher neighbouring prices. Generators could access larger markets but also encounter tougher competition.
For traders, coupling may reduce reliance on explicit-auction arbitrage while increasing access to more liquid short-term markets. Market participants including utilities, regulators, TSOs, exchanges, and investors are described as needing capabilities aligned with trading operations, rule credibility, coordinated capacity calculation and congestion management, liquidity provision, and revenue models that work before and after coupling.
Market coupling is presented as a gateway through which the Western Balkans move into Europe’s real-time electricity economy .
