Southeast European day-ahead power prices rose sharply for Monday delivery on 2 November, with Bulgaria, Greece, Hungary and Romania all above €309/MWh. The return of weekday demand coincided with a marked premium for the region over Germany. Bulgaria recorded the highest baseload price, while the Hungary-Germany spread widened to €51.28/MWh.
Eastern SEE prices lead regional rise
Bulgaria’s IBEX posted a baseload price of €317.78/MWh, up €55.8/MWh from Sunday. Greece followed at €312.94/MWh, Hungary at €310.29/MWh and Romania at €309.74/MWh. Germany’s price increased by only €3.1/MWh, reaching €259.01/MWh.
The resulting Hungary-Germany spread was €51.28/MWh. The gap highlighted that the Monday rebound was concentrated in central and southeastern Europe rather than matched by a similar increase across the wider continental market.
Regional electricity consumption was forecast to average 34,232 MW, an increase of 3,441 MW from Sunday. Despite the higher demand, net imports into the Hungary-SEE system fell by 591 MW to 3,844 MW. Imports from the Austria-Slovakia core declined by 901 MW to 3,024 MW, while imports from Italy rose sharply to 928 MW.
Regional generation stood at roughly 30.4 GW, compared with 26.4 GW on Sunday, as consumption climbed back above 34 GW. The combination of stronger demand and lower aggregate imports indicates that higher regional generation met a large share of the increase in Monday consumption.
Hourly price curves on several exchanges showed a synchronised rise in the afternoon and evening. HUPX recorded a Monday maximum of €396.5/MWh, while Romania and Bulgaria each reached €395.4/MWh and Greece peaked at €394.6/MWh. Serbia’s maximum was €375/MWh and Montenegro’s was €350/MWh, with the aligned peak hours pointing to a regional rather than purely national price event.
Serbia and Montenegro remain below the eastern cluster
Serbia’s SEEPEX baseload price rose €31.9/MWh to €293.32/MWh. It remained almost €17/MWh below Hungary and around €24/MWh below Bulgaria, meaning Serbia joined the regional rally without converging with the higher-priced eastern markets.
SEEPEX peakload increased to €331.1/MWh, while off-peak power traded at €255.6/MWh. The daily low was €206/MWh and the maximum was €375/MWh. Serbia’s seven-day baseload average stood at €287.7/MWh.
Serbia’s domestic balance showed little change in demand: average consumption was around 4,037 MW, almost unchanged from Sunday’s 4,031 MW. Generation slipped to about 2,890 MW from 2,930 MW, lifting the net import requirement to roughly 1,148 MW from 1,101 MW a day earlier.
The SEEPEX price increase therefore reflected the repricing of the interconnected market more than a sudden rise in Serbian consumption, alongside the country’s continuing structural exposure to imported electricity.
Montenegro’s BELEN baseload price rose €19.4/MWh to €287.55/MWh. The market remained about €22.7/MWh below Hungary, €25.4/MWh below Greece and more than €30/MWh below Bulgaria.
Peak power reached €310.7/MWh and off-peak power was €264.4/MWh. The daily minimum stood at €226/MWh and the maximum at €350/MWh. Consumption was broadly steady at around 356 MW, while generation increased to approximately 177 MW from 110 MW on Sunday.
Montenegro’s net import position consequently narrowed to around 179 MW from 245 MW. The improved physical balance helped the country retain a substantial discount to the main eastern SEE markets despite the wider regional price rise.
Albania records a contrasting price pattern
Albania was the main outlier in the regional rally. ALPEX baseload slipped €2.6/MWh to €259.96/MWh, around €50/MWh below Hungary and almost €58/MWh below Bulgaria.
Albanian off-peak power fell to €194.4/MWh, and the day’s minimum reached just €89.5/MWh. Peakload remained considerably higher, at €325.5/MWh.
The wide intraday range illustrates the fragmented SEE price pattern, in which relatively cheap renewable-heavy markets can coexist on the same delivery day with expensive thermal and import-dependent markets.
Hungary faces a wider domestic supply gap
Hungary showed one of the strongest signs of tightening conditions. Consumption rose from 4,540 MW on Sunday to 5,202 MW, while generation fell from 3,532 MW to around 3,264 MW. The country’s net import requirement widened from approximately 1,008 MW to 1,938 MW.
The deterioration in Hungary’s domestic power balance helps explain the sharp separation between HUPX and Germany. Forward prices in Hungary also remained elevated: Week 45 power traded at €327.50/MWh, Week 46 at €333/MWh and November at €304.50/MWh.
The November contract increased by €11.5/MWh from the previous session, while Week 46 rose by €23/MWh. CEGH gas stood at €105.39/MWh, EU carbon allowances at €89.19/t and November coal at $148/t, maintaining a high thermal generation cost floor.
Regional price tiers and next-session indicators
For 2 November, the market signal was not only the post-weekend increase in SEE prices but also the renewed separation between Germany and the Hungary-Romania-Bulgaria-Greece corridor. Serbia and Montenegro remained below that higher-priced eastern cluster, while Albania again emerged as the region’s principal low-price market.
The resulting structure placed the eastern core above €309/MWh, the Serbia-Montenegro-North Macedonia corridor around €288-294/MWh and Albania near €260/MWh. The return of weekday demand, Hungary’s larger import deficit and the €51/MWh Hungary-Germany spread were identified as key signals to monitor in the next session. Persistence of those conditions would indicate that the rally extended beyond a simple post-weekend normalisation of demand.