In September 2026, the day-ahead baseload average on IBEX was EUR 166.24/MWh and the average peak price was EUR 127.51/MWh. On SEEPEX the monthly baseload average was EUR 150.01/MWh against a euro-peak average of EUR 131.83/MWh. On MEMO in North Macedonia the monthly average was EUR 150.49/MWh against a peak-period average of EUR 121.40/MWh.
Across three exchanges in three countries, the peak-period average cleared below the whole-day average in the same month. The three are not on identical definitions: IBEX and SEEPEX publish a baseload average against a peak average, while MEMO publishes an average clearing price for the month against a peak-period average. The direction is the same in all three. A single delivery day can be weather. Three monthly averages are the merit order.
Greece is dealing with the next stage of the same problem. On 10.09.2026 the regulator RAAEY opened an investigation into whether solar producers deliberately cut output during negative-price hours between 17 and 23 August, and asked grid operator ADMIE for operational data to establish whether those cuts affected price formation or balancing costs. When the question becomes whether generators are withholding at midday, the midday price has already stopped working.
The response is now visible in the build-out rather than in strategy papers. Roughly 400 MW of the 900 MW awarded through Greece's standalone storage auctions has been connected, with the full capacity expected to be operational by the end of 2026. Serbia's transmission operator EMS has signed grid connection agreements covering about 2 GW of battery storage. North Macedonia has a 100 MW / 400 MWh battery at Bitola under EBRD review. Romania opened two Modernisation Fund calls for public entities worth EUR 650 million combined on 28.09.2026, alongside a EUR 150 million standalone storage call for companies closing 30.10.2026. The region is not debating flexibility any more. It is procuring it, and the price curve is the reason.
| Mkt | Project | MW | MWh | Status | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BG | Total operational BESS | 3 432 / 4 823 / 5 700 | n/a | Disputed | ESO at 20.05.2026, Capital in June 2026, the energy ministry at 24.09.2026. A spread of 2.3 GW. The minister separately stated on 07.10.2026 that 6 GW had been connected in under a year, which measures additions, not the stock. |
| BG | Tenevo hybrid, Yambol | 311 | 773 | Inaugurated | Renalfa IPP and Eurowind Energy, with 242 MWp PV commissioned in Q1 2026. Built in three battery phases, 65 MW / 260 MWh, 144 MW / 300 MWh and 102 MW / 212.5 MWh, reported as brought into commercial operation at the inauguration. EPC Solarpro Holding. About 250 MW of wind is planned at the site with no timeline. |
| BG | Knizhovnik hybrid, Haskovo | n/a | 200 | Contracted | Enery, two systems of 70 MWh and 130 MWh with 122 MWp PV, about 200 GWh a year, under a long-term PPA with Coca-Cola HBC Bulgaria. |
| BG | Devnya, repowered PV plus BESS | 60 | 165 | Added | Renalfa repowered the plant from 5 MWp to 65 MWp and added storage. A worked example of hybridising an existing connection rather than seeking a new one. |
| RO | Iron Gates II, Hidroelectrica | 64 | 434.76 | Contractor picked | Synergy Construct selected. Hidroelectrica's investment is reported as RON 296.8 million; the source gives no euro figure. Storage bolted onto existing hydro. |
| RO | Greenvolt, CATL supply | n/a | 918 | Under construction | Renovatio Solar as EPC, completion expected within 12 months of the September announcement. Site not named. |
| RO | Teius, Alba county | 60 | 120 | Completed | Eurowind Energy, EUR 21 million with PNRR support, EPC contract with Visual Fan worth over EUR 16.6 million. |
| RO | Isalnita, Dolj county | 20 | 40 | Contracted | OMV Petrom contracted Simtel Team for design, procurement and construction at the Isalnita solar park, about seven months from signing. |
| RO | Modernisation Fund storage calls | n/a | n/a | Calls open | EUR 650 million for public entities, closing 20.11.2026, plus EUR 150 million for companies closing 30.10.2026 at up to EUR 69 000/MWh and EUR 15 million per enterprise. Indicative volumes published per call do not reconcile with the stated cap, so no total MWh is given here. |
| GR | Thessaloniki, HELLENiQ Renewables | 100 | 200 | Operating | 56 LFP liquid-cooled containers on 10 ha, about EUR 50 million, NRRP support. A second system at Florina, 50 MW / 200 MWh, is near completion. |
| GR | Oinofyta, Elsewedy Electric | 50 | 100 | Energised | EUR 41.9 million, connected to the 150 kV network through a new 33/150 kV substation. Elsewedy's first battery project in Europe. |
| GR | Three standalone auction rounds | 900 | n/a | 44% connected | 711 MW two-hour and 189 MW four-hour. Connected figure reported 29.09.2026, full programme expected to be operational by the end of 2026. Brief No 07 reported zero connected on information available to 11.09.2026. |
| GR | Florina, HELLENiQ Renewables | 50 | 200 | Near completion | Four-hour duration, the company's second battery project after Thessaloniki. No commissioning date announced. |
| RS | EMS grid connection agreements | ~2 000 | n/a | Contracted | Up from 724 MW reported in Brief No 07. EMS cautions that a connection agreement is not a built asset. About 11 GW of wind and solar remains in the queue. |
| MK | Bitola standalone battery | 100 | 400 | Under review | About EUR 98 million, with an EBRD loan of up to EUR 33.1 million under consideration. Not financially closed. |
| ME | No storage pipeline | n/a | n/a | None | No operational or contracted grid-scale storage reported this month. Grid connection contracts of around 3 GW are almost entirely solar. |
| XK | NECP storage target | 170 | n/a | Target only | Target set for 2031, unchanged. No operational storage and no storage tender announced this month. |
The state of energy alert was extended a second time, by CNSU decision No 23/2026, published in Monitorul Oficial No 824 on 28.09.2026 and effective from 29.09.2026 for thirty days. The declaring act was decision No 15/2026, Monitorul Oficial I No 637 of 31.07.2026, first extended by decision No 21/2026, Monitorul Oficial I No 722 of 28.08.2026. Cernavoda Unit 1 has been shut since late July and Unit 2 since 13.08.2026, and restart depends on completing emergency works securing cooling water. Separately, Law No 160/2026 overhauled the prosumer compensation mechanism, moving to monthly value settlement and allowing surplus value to be used across several consumption points. Two ANRE consultations on energy communities and distribution billing close on 16.10.2026, and the government proposed extending emergency market powers through 31 October after the previous framework expired on 30.09.2026.
The Council of State closed a permitting loophole on 04.10.2026, cancelling 186 preliminary producer licences and 25 work approvals for a 185 MW solar development near Pineios Lake. The court found authorities had not examined whether nominally separate installations formed a single investment under common ownership. Anyone holding a portfolio assembled the same way now has a precedent against them. Separately, RAAEY opened an investigation on 10.09.2026 into whether solar producers deliberately cut output during negative-price hours between 17 and 23 August.
RWEA and RPIA asked ANRE on 06.10.2026 to cut the grid connection auction participation guarantee sixfold, from EUR 30 000 per MW to EUR 5 000 per MW. The capacity auction is scheduled for 30.10.2026. A guarantee set at a level that filters out everyone but balance-sheet developers is a policy choice about who gets to connect, whichever way it is resolved.
The construction tender for the 660 MW Bistrica pumped storage plant is planned for 2027, minister Dedovic Handanovic said on 09.09.2026. A JICA loan agreement is expected to be signed in 2027 and building permit conditions may be met in early 2027. Bids for a consultant to prepare the tender documentation were due on 06.10.2026, with ten months allowed to complete the work. The plant is rated at 1 600 GWh a year and was valued at EUR 1.2 billion in mid-2024.
ERS eased the Hrgud tender rules on 15.09.2026 after an appeal, five days after confirming that the procurement could not proceed on its original timetable. Four separate corporate references were replaced by a single reference for comparable electricity infrastructure worth at least EUR 25 million excluding VAT in the past five years, required experience for nine specialists fell from five years to two, and the requirement for bidders to produce their own viability assessment showing at least 160 GWh a year was dropped. No revised bid deadline has been announced.
Three bids were submitted in the first Kosovo wind auction, reported on 15.09.2026. The bidders are Akuo Energy, a consortium of Notus Energy and Stublla Energy, and a Guris-led consortium. The Ministry of Economy plans to award 50 to 100 MW under a price cap of EUR 80.2/MWh with fifteen-year contracts, two rounds together aiming at 150 MW. A commission must verify bid validity before the lowest price is declared the winner.
An Energy Community assessment published on 30.09.2026 records the country as meeting or surpassing several of its renewable commitments, against a national target of a 38% renewables share of gross final energy consumption by 2030. No act was promulgated in the window. The operative decisions this month were financial rather than legislative: the Bitola battery and the MEPSO digitalisation programme, both still at the lender's review stage.
The 112 MW Sinjajevina I wind project has slipped toward commercial operation in 2030, reported on 29.09.2026. Environmental approval came in August 2025 and the building permit application was filed in July 2026, with a development phase of up to 36 months from the original contract date and construction of up to 60 months from a building permit. CGES would acquire the transmission assets for about EUR 40 million.
One correction first. Brief No 07 printed Greece at zero of 900 MW of awarded storage connected. On 29.09.2026 that figure was reported at roughly 400 MW, with the full programme expected operational by the end of this year. I do not think the earlier line was wrong on the information then available, but it is wrong now, and a reader who acted on it would have mispriced the Greek flexibility market by about six months. It is corrected in the tracker above with both dates visible.
The counting problem in Bulgaria has not been resolved. It has widened, and this month it acquired a fourth number. ESO reported 3 432 MW for 20.05.2026. Capital counted 4 823 MW in June. The energy ministry was reported at about 5.7 GW on 24.09.2026. Then on 07.10.2026 minister Iva Petrova said 6 GW of batteries had been connected to the system in less than a year. That last one is not the same kind of statement as the other three: it describes what was added over a period, while the others describe what is installed at a date. Nobody has published a reconciliation, and the two kinds of figure are now being quoted interchangeably in the same market. Some of the 2.3 GW spread is real growth over four months and some of it is different parties measuring different things. I would treat any Bulgarian flexibility forecast built on a single one of these numbers as unusable, and I would ask which of the four a counterparty means before signing anything that depends on it.
On the main finding, what changed in September is the evidence class. Brief No 07 had one monthly average, Bulgaria in August, and one delivery day in Serbia. A reader could fairly call that a hot month in two markets. It now rests on three monthly averages from three exchanges in three countries, published independently of each other. For an operating solar park, this is not merely market commentary. It has direct revenue implications. The plant sells its volume into the cheapest block of the day and settles against an index it no longer earns.
What I would do with this going into 2027. Stop modelling capture rate as a haircut on baseload and start modelling it from the hourly shape, because the haircut is no longer a few percent and is no longer stable. Treat contractor and connection availability, not equipment pricing, as the binding constraint on any storage schedule signed from here. And look hard at what Renalfa did at Devnya this month, repowering a 5 MWp plant to 65 MWp and adding 60 MW and 165 MWh on a connection that already existed. In a region where Serbia has about 11 GW sitting in the transmission queue and Romania is in its third consecutive month of a declared energy alert, the existing grid connection is the scarcest asset on the balance sheet, and hybridising around it beats competing for a new one.