Manipulation of electricity import prices in SEE power market

A report by the Kosovo Transmission System and Market Operator (KOSTT) suggests possible manipulation of prices for electricity imported into Kosovo, implicating Serbia’s state energy company Elektroprivreda Srbije (EPS) and private trader Noa Energy Trade in coordinated behaviour during cross-border capacity auctions in 2025. The findings raise questions about how auction mechanisms were used to inflate transmission costs beyond the underlying electricity […]

Manipulation of electricity import prices in SEE power market Read More »

Why EPS ceded coal landfills to foreign JV partners instead of building solar and storage alone

The decision by power utility EPS to open its coal ash landfills, overburden dumps and degraded mining land to foreign joint-venture partners for solar and battery storage projects looks puzzling at first glance. EPS owns the land, controls grid access, understands the system better than any private player, and in theory enjoys implicit sovereign backing. In

Why EPS ceded coal landfills to foreign JV partners instead of building solar and storage alone Read More »

EPS between reversible hydropower and gas plants: Flagship projects that never cross the point of no return

Within EPS power utility company the story of repeated feasibility does not stop with classical hydropower. It becomes even more pronounced when looking at projects explicitly designed to solve Serbia’s most visible system weaknesses: flexibility, balancing and security of supply. Reversible hydropower and gas-fired generation have been identified for more than a decade as strategic answers

EPS between reversible hydropower and gas plants: Flagship projects that never cross the point of no return Read More »

Hydropower in South-East Europe: Feasibility without commitment, projects without groundworks

Across South-East Europe, hydropower development has settled into a stable but deeply unproductive equilibrium. Feasibility studies are commissioned, revised and relaunched with increasing technical sophistication, while the physical projects they describe remain untouched. This is not a failure of hydrology, engineering or economics. It is a deliberate system in which analysis substitutes for decision-making and

Hydropower in South-East Europe: Feasibility without commitment, projects without groundworks Read More »

Perspective gas interconnections but never converted into steel in the ground

Across South-East Europe’s gas sector, feasibility studies have become a permanent layer of the energy system rather than a transitional step toward construction. The region is not short of concepts, routes, demand forecasts or engineering detail. What it lacks is the moment when capital, regulation and political ownership converge tightly enough to force execution. The

Perspective gas interconnections but never converted into steel in the ground Read More »

Carbon cost pass-through in post-Russian SEE energy systems 

The withdrawal of Russian ownership from oil assets across South-East Europe has not only altered who controls energy infrastructure, but also how costs are transmitted through the energy system. One of the most consequential shifts lies in the treatment of carbon. Under the previous ownership and pricing regime, carbon costs were often implicit, absorbed within

Carbon cost pass-through in post-Russian SEE energy systems  Read More »

Hydrogen economics under gas repricing 

Hydrogen has been positioned across South-East Europe as a strategic bridge between energy security, industrial decarbonisation and European integration. National strategies, pilot projects and policy roadmaps have converged around hydrogen as a future-proof solution capable of absorbing surplus renewables, decarbonising heavy industry and anchoring new investment cycles. Yet the ownership exit of Russian oil assets

Hydrogen economics under gas repricing  Read More »

Refinery by-products: Petcoke, bitumen and construction inflation in South-East Europe

The transfer of ownership of Russian oil assets across South-East Europe has not only changed who controls refineries and fuel retail networks; it has fundamentally altered how a range of secondary energy commodities are priced, supplied and financed. These by-products of refining—petroleum coke, bitumen, sulphur and heavy fuel intermediates—rarely feature in high-level energy debates, yet

Refinery by-products: Petcoke, bitumen and construction inflation in South-East Europe Read More »

Nuclear fuel and uranium: Europe’s quiet Russian dependency

The ownership exit of Russian oil assets from South-East Europe has sharpened attention on vulnerabilities that were long considered peripheral to the region’s energy debate. Among them, nuclear fuel stands out as the least visible and yet most structurally entrenched dependency. While oil and gas flows dominate political discourse, the nuclear fuel cycle continues to

Nuclear fuel and uranium: Europe’s quiet Russian dependency Read More »

Coal and lignite after oil: Hidden subsidy crisis in SEE electricity

The reordering of ownership in South-East Europe’s oil sector has had an effect far beyond fuels and refineries. By forcing oil pricing onto transparent, market-based terms, it has removed a long-standing buffer that masked deeper distortions elsewhere in the energy system. Nowhere is this more evident than in electricity generation based on coal and lignite.

Coal and lignite after oil: Hidden subsidy crisis in SEE electricity Read More »

Scroll to Top