Obstacles - Growing pains

Eastern European power markets have experienced rapid growth since liberalisation at the start of this decade, but there are still many obstacles impeding the market's development, finds James Ockenden

The fledgling electricity markets of central eastern Europe have developed rapidly since liberalisation spread to the region at the start of the decade. Some of the incumbent state-run utilities developed sophisticated trading teams from scratch in a remarkably short period of time, and the area has attracted investment from large western European utilities as well.

However, there are still significant hurdles to overcome if the markets of eastern Europe are to become anywhere near as liquid as