New Electricity Regulation

​​The new Electricity Regulation aims to adapt the existing market rules to new emerging market realities.

The new Regulation provides a set of fundamental principles for well-functioning, integrated electricity markets.

It includes general rules for the electricity market and covers in detail network access and congestion management, resource adequacy, transmission system operators, distribution system operators, as well as network codes and guidelines.​

The new Electricity Regulation foresees the establishment of Regional Coordination Centres (RCCs), replacing the regional security coordinators established by the System Operation Guideline. 

Their tasks include: 

• supporting the consistency assessment of transmission system operators' defence and restoration plans, ensuring an effective application of the Emergency and Restoration Network Code's procedure

• supporting the coordination and optimisation of regional restoration

• carrying out post-operation and post disturbances analysis, and

• reporting and identifying regional electricity crisis scenarios

Ahead of their entering into operation by 1 July 2022, the geographical scope of the RCCs had to be defined through a proposal for system operation regions. 

The proposal should be submitted to ACER by the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E) and must specify which transmission system operators, bidding zones, bidding zone borders, capacity calculation regions and outage coordination regions are covered by each of the system operation regions. 

The proposal shall take into account the grid topology, including the level of interconnection and interdependency of the electricity system in terms of flows and the size of the region (covering at least one capacity calculation region).

The activities of RCCs will be coordinated across regional boundaries, while the day-to-day coordination within and between the RCCs will be managed by cooperation processes among the transmission system operators of the region, as well as by arrangements between the RCCs.

​Implementation steps

​Action 1: From October to November 2019, ENTSO-E has conducted a public consultation on its proposal for System Operation Regions (SOR). ​

Action 2: On 6 January 2020, ENTSO-E submitted the SOR proposal to ACER. Find out more about the ENTSO-E proposal for System Operation Regions  and the Explanatory document  accompanying the proposal.

Action 3:  On 6 January 2020, ACER opened a public consultation for all stakeholders on ENTSO-E proposal.

Action 4: Within three months following the receipt of the proposal, ACER shall approve or amend it. In case of any amendments, ACER shall consult ENTSO-E before adopting any changes.

Action 5: ACER shall publish the adopted proposal on its website.​

Action 6: On 15 March 2021, ACER published a public notice on the opening of a procedure for the definition of system operation regions​ (ACER-ELE-2021-010).

Action 7: On 29 June 2021, ACER published its Decision on the definition of system operation regions (Decision No 08/2021).

Action 8: On 19 October 2021, ACER withdrew Decision No 08/2021 and reopened the procedure for the definition of system operation regions.

Action 9: On 8 April 2022, ACER published the adopted decision (ACER Decision No 05/2022) on its website.

Following the revision of the Electricity Regulation, Transmission System Operators (TSOs) have the obligation to reach a minimum level of cross-zonal capacity to facilitate electricity trading across countries.

When Member States or TSOs cannot comply with their obligations, they can establish an action plan, or ask for a derogation.

Derogations allow TSOs more time to implement the necessary measures and be compliant; and they are granted for a maximum of two years. Action plans provide time to address structural network constraints – possibly requiring investment – over a longer time horizon (5 years). National regulatory authorities can grant derogations, while action plans are provided by the Member State.

To facilitate the monitoring of the European electricity market, the Agency is compiling all the derogations and action plans granted and also collecting relevant documents.​

The Electricity Regulation envisages the development of European network codes in different areas, based on a priority list established by the European Commission every three years.

The latest priority list for the development of harmonised electricity rules for 2020-2023 period includes the rules on demand side flexibility - including rules on aggregation, energy storage and demand curtailment rules.

To seek a diversified expert advice on these topics, ACER has established a dedicated Expert group on demand side flexibility.

On 21 October 2022, the European Commission invited ACER to carry out a scoping exercise for the coming Framework Guideline on this topic. ACER’s conclusions were delivered to the European Commission on 1 February 2022.

On 1 June 2022, the European Commission invited ACER to submit non-binding framework guidelines setting out clear and objective principles for the development of a network code on demand response. ACER ran a public consultation from 2 June to 12 August 2022. The resulting Framework Guideline on Demand Response was submitted to the European Commission on 20 December 2022.