Cross-border electricity integration made SEE stronger — but it has also hardwired shared vulnerability, with Serbia at the centre of transmission risk

For more than a decade, the strategic ambition guiding South-East Europe’s electricity evolution has been clear: integrate, harmonise, align with European rules, deepen liquidity, strengthen competition and build a regional market architecture that supports stability, investment and security of supply. On paper, this strategy has worked. Market coupling initiatives advanced. SEEPEX evolved. Transmission interconnectors improved. […]

Cross-border electricity integration made SEE stronger — but it has also hardwired shared vulnerability, with Serbia at the centre of transmission risk Read More »

SEE renewables are expanding faster than stability — and Serbia now sits inside the volatility engine

South-East Europe is accelerating its renewable transition. Solar fields rise across Greece and Bulgaria, wind projects return to Romania’s agenda, battery pipelines begin appearing in policy documents, and Western Balkan governments increasingly wrap their industrial and geopolitical narratives in the language of decarbonisation. Looked at from a distance, the region appears to be moving decisively

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Serbia now sits at the centre of South-East Europe’s electricity future — and the region’s shared risk

For most of the past decade, discussion around South-East Europe’s energy transition framed Serbia as one of many actors in a broader regional story. That framing no longer reflects reality. Today, Serbia has moved into a decisive strategic position: it is the central platform through which regional power flows, market integration, price formation and system risk

Serbia now sits at the centre of South-East Europe’s electricity future — and the region’s shared risk Read More »

Fragmented rules, unified risk

Energy markets in Europe operate under a paradox. Physically and financially, they have become deeply integrated. Regulators, however, still govern them through fragmented frameworks designed for a world of separate sectors and largely national systems. This mismatch between unified market risk and fragmented rules has become a structural source of volatility rather than a stabilising

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Traders as systemic players

In an integrated energy system, traders are no longer peripheral actors arbitraging price differences at the margin. They have become systemic players whose decisions influence flows, liquidity, and even system stability. This shift is not the result of increased market power, but of structural necessity. As markets grow more interconnected and volatile, the actions of

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Hedging without isolated markets

Hedging strategies are built on assumptions. For much of Europe’s energy-market history, the central assumption was that risks could be segmented. Electricity price risk could be hedged with power forwards. Gas price risk could be managed through hub-based contracts and storage. Oil exposure, if relevant, was addressed separately. These strategies relied on the belief that

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Portfolio management in a multi-fuel world

Energy portfolio management was once a relatively linear exercise. Power desks optimised generation and hedging within electricity markets. Gas desks focused on supply contracts, storage, and seasonal spreads. Oil exposure was managed separately, often as a macro or logistics consideration. Correlations were imperfect, time horizons were distinct, and diversification across fuels offered genuine risk reduction.

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From batteries to gas storage

Flexibility is not a single technology or asset class. It is a portfolio of capabilities that operate across timescales, fuels, and infrastructures. Batteries, hydro reservoirs, gas storage, linepack, demand response, and even industrial load adjustments each provide a different form of temporal and operational elasticity. Understanding how these forms of flexibility interact is essential for

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Flexibility as the new currency

In today’s energy markets, value is no longer defined primarily by volume or capacity. It is defined by flexibility. The ability to respond quickly, reliably, and economically to changing system conditions has become the most scarce and most valuable resource. In an integrated energy system dominated by variable renewables, constrained infrastructure, and volatile fuel markets,

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