Another step towards the regional energy market

The cooperation memorandum between Romania, Hungary and Austria for the development of the regional energy market will be finalized soon. Lucian Palade, general manager at OPCOM, (the Romanian energy market operator), said: "We are waiting for the memorandum to be signed, soon, by the Ministries of Energy of the three countries. Even though the document does not entail any commitments from a legal point of view, it represents an important step towards the concretization of the regional market project".

He also said that after the signing of the memorandum, experts in the three countries will begin discussions and negotiations on the trading mechanisms on the joint spot market, as well as on the mechanism for the coupling of the three markets.

The OPCOM official also said that the document allows the accession of other countries to this market, as well as allowing participants to continue ongoing projects or join other regional market projects, if they deem it opportune.

Out of the three countries that signed the memorandum, Hungary is the only one that does not have a functional spot energy market. Lucian Palade said: "We hope that this project will begin next year. OPCOM won the tender for providing services for the Hungarian energy market, but the contract has not been signed yet, most likely because of the financing problems of the Hungarian party".

Bulgaria has also expressed renewed interest in developing a spot energy market. Bulgarian authorities are currently in the process of selecting the consultant that will assist Hungary in choosing the market type.