Energy Community monitoring data for the third quarter show 2.97 TWh of combined day-ahead trading across organised Western Balkan exchanges, up 26.7% year on year and 10.2% quarter on quarter. The increase came as scheduled cross-border electricity exchanges between the region and the European Union weakened.
Day-ahead traded electricity rose to approximately 23% of regional load, compared with 19% in the comparable period of 2025. The data indicate greater use of organised power exchanges, but do not by themselves establish improved access to the EU market or higher cross-border trading margins.
Electricity can be traded on local exchanges even when export deliveries face constraints. Some sales to EU markets have become more difficult economically because of carbon-related costs, transmission availability and cross-border scheduling conditions. The commercial value of access to European buyers therefore remains dependent on those costs, interconnector conditions and verifiable delivery arrangements.
Greater exchange liquidity can improve price discovery and market access for renewable-energy producers entering merchant power markets. It does not replace the documentation required to support eligible actual-emissions treatment under the EU’s electricity Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) rules.
In Serbia, SEEPEX provides organised market access, while traded-volume trends also need to be assessed against export-price differences and the ability to deliver electricity physically across borders. In Montenegro, rising regional exchange activity coincided with stronger electricity exports to Italy, showing that market opportunities vary by delivery route and generation portfolio.
The figures warrant updates to trading-liquidity assumptions, cross-border margin models, electricity forecasting and renewable power-purchase agreement risk assessments. Exchange activity alone does not establish whether electricity can be delivered across a border or sold at a commercially viable price.
