Adex, the Ljubljana-based energy exchange for Central and South Eastern Europe, are to sign off on the coupling of Serbian and Hungarian energy markets within a few weeks. The move was announced at the Belgrade Energy Forum, where Hungarian Energy group HUPX CEO Mátyás Vajta said that the move towards a wider regional exchange would enable markets to handle short term supply fluctuations delivered by wind and renewables. His Serbian counterpart, Dejan Stojčevski, hi-lighted that negative power prices need to be allowed in Western Balkan markets to enable market coupling.
The move comes amid Hungary’s wider drive to build energy storage facilities. As the Contemporary Amperex Technology Co’s €7.34bn Debrecen plant bumps Hungary up to being the world’s second largest producer of batteries, €158m has been awarded by the government to build a 440MW storage facility and Slovenia’s Andrada Group are building a battery recycling plant in Alsózsolca.
The Adex Group was founded in 2022 and traded 16.3TWh of electricity in 2023. CEO Anže Predovnik urged cooperation between electricity traders, providers and regulators to ease the process of market integration. One distinct advantage of the network is that it will enable Balkan electricity pooled within it to be sold in the EU without having to pay CO2 import tariffs.
“We hope that this will be one of the first, if not the first coupling between the EU and the Energy Community countries, serving as a pilot project, providing a good example of how this can be done in a smooth, fast and professional way,” Vajta stated.
Although power coupling should begin within days, the international market still needs Serbia still needs to amend its domestic electricity taxation laws. The regional network is also helping its partners in Montenegro and North Macedonia.
