Gas is returning to the Southeast European investment agenda, but its role in the region’s power system is changing.
The strongest developments in August focused less on a broad revival of conventional baseload generation and more on supply diversification, gas infrastructure and selective investment in flexible gas-fired capacity.
One of the clearest developments came from Bulgaria, where DEPA Commercial delivered 500 GWh of LNG to Bulgartransgaz through the Alexandroupolis FSRU.
The delivery marked the Bulgarian transmission operator’s first use of LNG from the terminal for system requirements, strengthening the north-south gas corridor linking Greek LNG infrastructure with Bulgaria and markets further north.
The development is significant because Southeast European gas security has historically relied heavily on east-west pipeline flows.
Additional LNG entry points can reduce dependence on individual supply routes while increasing competition between pipeline gas and imported LNG.
Regulatory integration is advancing alongside the physical infrastructure.
EU gas network-code rules are beginning to extend to external borders with Energy Community Contracting Parties, covering areas including capacity allocation, balancing and interoperability.
Serbia is also preparing a larger domestic gas infrastructure programme.
Belgrade and the World Bank are developing a multi-year investment package approaching €1 billion, initially focused on the Niš–Velika Plana pipeline, with potential future investment in gas storage and additional transmission connections.
The country is also working with SOCAR on a preliminary feasibility study for a planned approximately 500 MW gas-fired combined heat and power plant near Niš, with a potential development horizon around 2030.
The project remains at an early stage, but it illustrates the changing role of gas in Serbia’s future power system.
Greece has a more advanced gas-to-power proposal.
Larissa Thermoelectric awarded AVAX an EPC contract for a planned 794 MW CCGT, based on Mitsubishi Power technology, although the project is still awaiting a final investment decision expected later in 2026.
The economics of these new gas-fired plants will differ substantially from those of older conventional generators.
As solar and wind penetration increases, annual operating hours may decline even as the value of selected high-price periods rises.
New combined-cycle gas turbines will therefore increasingly depend on market spreads, capacity remuneration, ancillary-service revenues and the ability to operate efficiently across variable load conditions.
This changes the way investors should assess gas-fired generation.
The future value of a gas asset will depend less on how many hours it can operate and more on how efficiently and profitably it can respond during the hours when the power system most needs flexible generation.
Gas is therefore not necessarily returning to Southeast Europe as a traditional baseload technology. Instead, its emerging role is increasingly that of a flexibility, security-of-supply and balancing asset supporting a power system with a growing share of intermittent renewable generation.
