Day-ahead electricity prices in Southeast Europe rebounded strongly for Sept. 28 as weekday demand recovered and cross-border flows shifted toward higher-priced western markets. Serbia stayed a major outlier, with prices almost €50/MWh below Hungary. Western markets were also stronger, with higher levels recorded in Germany, Austria and Italy.
National price levels across SEE
On HUPX, Hungary’s base price rose by €47.3/MWh to €161.19/MWh. Romania climbed to €154.34/MWh, Bulgaria to €146.11/MWh, and Greece to €135.11/MWh. Croatia settled at €166.14/MWh, Montenegro at €165.13/MWh, and Slovenia at €168.95/MWh.
North Macedonia recorded an average of €150.41/MWh, while Albania settled at €129.40/MWh. Serbia posted the lowest regional average at just €111.69/MWh, little changed from Sunday. The Serbian level was around €49.5/MWh below HUPX, despite Serbia remaining a net electricity importer.
Consumption and cross-border flow shifts
Regional consumption increased by about 3.65 GW from Sunday to 28.83 GW. This helped restore the weekday premium after a weekend price collapse. Over the same period, the combined Hungary and SEE system moved from an almost balanced position on Sunday to net exports averaging around 1.39 GW.
About 1.26 GW flowed toward Italy, while roughly 547 MW moved toward Austria and Slovakia. Bulgaria exported an average of 1.33 GW, Romania about 754 MW, Greece 1.35 GW, and Bosnia and Herzegovina around 530 MW. Hungary remained a net importer of about 821 MW, Croatia imported around 859 MW, and Serbia about 394 MW.
Eastern transit role and interconnector-driven pricing gaps
Romania acted as an important east-to-west transit source, with flows toward Hungary reaching around 1.92 GW. Bulgaria supplied approximately 1.15 GW to Romania and almost 390 MW to Serbia, reflecting interconnected flow patterns across eastern SEE markets. Hungary then redistributed part of those imports west and south, exporting around 851 MW toward Austria, 679 MW toward Slovenia, and 515 MW toward Croatia.
The pricing gap involving Serbia persisted alongside these flow changes. SEEPEX traded around €34/MWh below Bulgaria, almost €43/MWh below Romania, and close to €50/MWh below Hungary. Despite this, Serbia was still importing electricity overall, indicating that national net balance alone did not explain day-ahead price formation.
The source of divergence was attributed to interconnector constraints, hourly commercial schedules and congestion affecting whether lower-priced power could reach neighbouring premium markets.
Intraday volatility and flexibility value in hourly curves
The hourly curves showed the growing value of flexibility across the region’s power systems. On HUPX, prices fell to around €5.6/MWh