Serbia plans to set up a spot power exchange in the first quarter of 2014 with the aim of later joining it with other regional day-ahead markets, an official of its grid operator EMS said on Wednesday. Milos Mladenovic, EMS’s director for international and regulatory issues, said the SEEPEX exchange project would boost competition, increase liquidity and security of supply in the region, as well as develop reliable price indices. Regional grid operators, power utilities and other European power bourses would be offered roles as strategic partners and shareholders in SEEPEX, he added. In the initial phase, neighboring Bosnia, Montenegro and Macedonia could join SEEPEX before eventually linking with the Hungarian, Romanian, Czech and Slovak markets, another EMS official said.