Power exchanges in Europe have been operating since the 1990s, while in the region of Southeast Europe (SEE) they are only a few years old. Volatility is considered to be one of the indicators that define the level of market development. In this paper, the authors examine 15 power markets in Europe with the novelty of special attention dedicated to the SEE markets, in terms of their volatility. The aim of this paper is to investigate volatility on SEE markets, and their correlation with developed European markets. Power price volatility is measured by price velocity concepts, the daily velocity based on daily/monthly/quarterly/yearly and overall average power prices. The outcomes reveal that power price volatility is higher in new SEE markets than in more mature European markets. The least volatile market is the Greek pool, followed by Switzerland and Austria. The Bulgarian market is the most volatile, followed by that of Romania, and these markets are nearly twice as volatile as the ones previously mentioned. A correlation matrix is carried out and confirms positive correlation between all markets in terms of their average prices. However, a correlation matrix of measured volatilities depicts a negative correlation, in some cases, between SEE and Central European (CE) markets.

Volatile energy prices in the past period, force countries and their market participants to find alternative and cheaper sources of electricity production, while respecting defined environmental principles. Serbia is one of the rare European countries that uses its reserves of dissolved gas in the heat and electricity production. Combined heat and power plants, although in an almost negligible amount, contribute to the diversification of Serbia's production mix. With the presence of organized markets and local power exchanges, sale of electricity from combined heat and power plants is guaranteed for all producers who do not meet the conditions for acquiring the right to feed-in tariffs. The aim of this paper is to analyze the most profitable sale on the power exchanges of the domestic market and the region, specifically the markets of Serbia, Croatia, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria. The calculation methodology itself implies the use of average monthly price value for the observed markets, in the period of the past three years and nine months. In addition to the aforementioned, the costs of cross-border capacities were considered. In order to have a clearer overview of the results and the possibility of applying the methodology, the amount for calculation is 1 MWh. Costs and revenues related to negative and positive balance energy deviations are excluded from the analysis. Results showed that sale of electricity is most profitable on Serbian power exchange.

The paper presents an economic feasibility analysis applied to assess the cost effectiveness of implementing a combined heat and power system at oil and gas fields. The purpose of this paper is to present a generic methodological framework by calculating return on investments in order to investigate the economic benefit and a payback period at the plants installed capacity. The findings of this analysis demonstrate that the mode of operation with sale of electricity at feed-in tariff and supply of excess heat to third parties is the most cost-effective because of its shortest payback period of 2.80 years. However, mode of operation with sale of electricity at free market and using heat for own consumption is the least economical, with payback period of 20.84 years. The paper provides important insights into strategic long-term and challenging decisions made by investors highlighting potential risks and providing the roadmap and appropriate price signals on critical energy projects under market conditions.

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