Romania had the highest average day-ahead electricity price among the seven major Southeast European markets monitored by the Institute of Energy for South-East Europe (IENE) in the week ended November 1. The average reached €287.26/MWh, despite a marked drop in net electricity imports.
The price was €0.71/MWh above Serbia’s €286.55/MWh and €2.63/MWh higher than Hungary’s €284.63/MWh. Combined wind and solar generation fell by 34.3% week on week, while electricity demand rose by 1.58%. Hydropower output increased by 15.04%, partly offsetting weaker renewable generation; thermal generation declined by 2.32%. Net electricity imports dropped by 66.32% to 48.20 GWh.
The simultaneous rise in wholesale prices and fall in import volumes challenges the assumption that Romania’s price increase was driven mainly by greater reliance on imported electricity. IENE’s data do not separately account for nuclear generation, power plant availability, intraday transmission constraints or the marginal generation technology setting hourly market prices. A decline in aggregate weekly imports does not necessarily mean lower electricity prices, particularly when supply and demand remain tight across neighbouring markets.
For electricity market participants, Romania’s results highlight the distinction between physical electricity flows and spot price formation. Weekly net imports reflect the overall national supply-demand balance, whereas day-ahead prices respond to conditions in individual delivery hours and bidding zones. Romania’s position as the region’s most expensive market despite substantially lower net imports underlines the need for closer analysis of hourly generation patterns, power plant availability and cross-border interconnection capacity.