Serbia Electricity 44 Euros Below Hungary After 60% Spike
Serbia's SEEPEX baseline electricity price fell to 164.14 euros per megawatt hour on September 11, while Hungary's HUPX climbed to 208.98. The Serbian price had jumped 60 percent the day before.
The baseline electricity price on Serbia’s SEEPEX exchange stood at 164.14 euros per megawatt hour on September 11, a drop of 10.20 euros from the day before. Serbia was the only major market in the region to get cheaper that day, while Hungary’s HUPX exchange rose by 5.60 euros to 208.98 euros per megawatt hour. The gap between the two markets reached 44.84 euros per megawatt hour, and more than 42 euros against Croatia.
Region gets pricier, Serbia the lone exception
The rest of southeastern Europe moved the opposite way. Italy’s price came in at 216.25 euros per megawatt hour, Austria’s at 209.03, Romania’s at 208.46, Croatia’s at 206.74, and Slovenia’s at 206.58. Bulgaria rose by 12.20 euros to 200.66, Albania reached 197.58, and Germany hit 195.23 euros per megawatt hour. Montenegro climbed 30.70 euros to 185.33, Greece stood at 182.42, while North Macedonia posted the region’s steepest jump, 46.50 euros, to 179.88 euros per megawatt hour.
Serbia’s gap with its neighbors was not a one-day fluke. A day earlier, on September 10, the Serbian baseline price had jumped from 109.3 to 174.39 euros per megawatt hour, a roughly 60 percent increase in just 24 hours, with one peak hour touching 350 euros per megawatt hour. Even then, Serbia held a discount against Hungary, at the time close to 29 euros, which widened a day later to 44.84 euros as HUPX kept climbing while SEEPEX fell.
Why Serbia got cheaper while the region got pricier
Supply and demand tightened across the region. Wind generation dropped by 700 megawatts to 1,246 megawatts, and solar output fell by 108 megawatts to 5,779 megawatts. Consumption, meanwhile, rose by 184 megawatts to an average of 31,668 megawatts. Despite that, the region’s net imports fell by 180 megawatts to 1,370 megawatts, as inflows from Austria and Slovakia dropped by 292 megawatts. Exports to Italy kept rising, reaching about 635 megawatts, 50 megawatts more than the day before, since the Italian price remained the highest in the region.
Exchange sources attribute Serbia’s gap with neighboring markets to domestic supply conditions and limits on cross-border transmission capacity: there was enough cheap power in Serbia to push the SEEPEX price down, but not enough capacity to carry that discount across the borders in full.
Gas and carbon permits still climbing
Fuel costs pushed the region higher still. At Austria’s CEGH hub, the gas price rose by 2.40 euros to 83.17 euros per megawatt hour, with the October contract at 83.50 euros. For the same day, Hungary’s CEEGEX gas exchange was quoted, according to a separate source, at 80.03 euros, while the Dutch TTF index stood at 82.79 euros per megawatt hour, two separate benchmarks pointing to the same upward trend. A European Union carbon allowance was worth 85.82 euros per tonne, adding further pressure to production costs at gas and coal power plants.
Hungary’s futures market moved in mixed directions. The October baseline product rose 4.50 euros to 198 euros per megawatt hour, and the annual contract rose 4 euros to 154.50. Short-term contracts, by contrast, got cheaper: the price for week 38 fell 7.50 euros to 183, and for week 39 it fell 6 euros to 186.50 euros per megawatt hour, a sign that the market expects some short-term relief even as risks for winter stay elevated.
During solar peak hours, between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m., the average price on HUPX was 184.17 euros per megawatt hour, while North Macedonia’s MEMO exchange averaged 121.40 euros, another sign that the same day can produce very different prices depending on the market and time of day.
Serbske Novine has previously reported on rising energy prices, when a barrel of Brent crude reached 106 dollars and gas in Amsterdam hit 82.59 euros per megawatt hour. The current figures show that pressure has now spilled directly into daily electricity exchange prices across the region, while Serbia, thanks to domestic production and limited cross-border flow, has for now stayed largely insulated from the bulk of the price increases.
