August 22 (SeeNews) - The power exchanges of Serbia and Hungary are expected to merge their business by the end of the year to create a strong regional player, Serbian energy minister Aleksandar Antic said.
The merger would provide a single-point access to the power markets of the countries in Central and Southeast Europe, increasing the liquidity of the day-ahead market as well as the profitability and efficiency of the two operators, Antic said after a meeting with Hungarian foreign affairs and trade minister Peter Szijjarto on Wednesday, according to a Serbian government's statement.
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In February 2018, Belgrade-based South East European Power Exchange (SEEPEX) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Hungarian Power Exchange (HUPX) to merge their spot power businesses and create a cross-regional power exchange in Central and Southeast Europe (CESE). The document was also signed by Serbia's transmission system operator Elektromreza Srbije (EMS), the Hungarian Independent Transmission Operator Company (MAVIR) and the European Power Exchange EPEX SPOT.
According to the MoU, HUPX and SEEPEX will merge their spot power businesses, while maintaining a steady link to EPEX SPOT, in order to create a strong player in CESE, SEEPEX has said.
EPEX SPOT, EMS and MAVIR will act as founder shareholders of the newly established power exchange. The latter shall rely on EPEX SPOT services regarding the operation of a day-ahead market and day-ahead market coupling activities.
The new power exchange will be based in Budapest and Belgrade, with the project being open to interested additional partners.
SEEPEX is a licensed operator of an organised power exchange established in the form of partnership between EMS and EPEX SPOT. It provides a market place where exchange members send their orders to buy or sell electricity in determined delivery areas. Its role consists in matching these orders in a transparent manner, according to the public market rules which among others describe the priorities and algorithms used for orders matching.