Electricity market liquidity across South-East Europe remained uneven during calendar week 13, with Italy continuing to dominate trading volumes and exert significant influence over regional price formation.
Italy recorded weekly traded volumes of approximately 21,940 GWh, far exceeding those of SEE markets. By comparison, Serbia’s SEEPEX exchange recorded volumes of around 100 GWh, highlighting the substantial disparity in market depth.
This imbalance has important implications for pricing and volatility. Highly liquid markets such as Italy benefit from greater transparency and more efficient price discovery, while smaller markets are more susceptible to price swings due to limited trading activity.
The dominance of Italy also reflects its structural position as the largest importing market in the region. High demand and limited domestic generation capacity make Italy a key driver of cross-border flows, influencing prices across interconnected markets.
For SEE countries, the liquidity gap presents both challenges and opportunities. On one hand, limited market depth can increase volatility and reduce efficiency. On the other hand, it creates opportunities for traders able to navigate less liquid environments.
Efforts to enhance market integration and increase liquidity are ongoing, including the development of regional coupling mechanisms and improvements in cross-border capacity allocation.
However, progress remains uneven, and structural differences between markets continue to limit full integration.
From a trading perspective, the liquidity gap underscores the importance of understanding market-specific dynamics. Strategies that work in highly liquid markets may not be directly applicable in SEE, where local conditions play a more significant role.
