Montenegro and Italy are advancing preparations to couple their wholesale power markets, but regulatory approvals are likely to delay the start of coordinated trading.
Montenegrin regulator REGAGEN estimates that the formal market-coupling procedure will take around 18 months after an application is submitted. Montenegro cannot start the process until the European Commission confirms that its electricity legislation complies with EU requirements.
Montenegro requested an assessment of its regulatory framework in March 2026, and the Energy Community Secretariat forwarded its findings to Brussels in June. The European Commission’s assessment had not been confirmed by the time of the report. Montenegro may also need to amend domestic legislation and obtain approval for its market-integration plan from the Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER).
Meanwhile, regulators, transmission operators and market operators from Montenegro and Italy meet every two weeks to develop procedures for coordinated cross-border trading. Transmission operators CGES and Terna are working on methods to calculate and allocate available cross-border capacity. The two markets are already physically connected by the Adriatic submarine cable. Coupling would add coordinated capacity allocation and trading, potentially increasing liquidity and improving use of the interconnector.