2026 Monitoring Report
This ACER Monitoring Report outlines key developments in EU energy markets in 2025*, with a focus on the evolving interaction between gas and electricity. It covers both wholesale dynamics and their implications on retail markets. The report sets out ACER’s recommendations to step up energy market integration efforts to support EU decarbonisation, energy security and competitiveness goals.
*The analysis focuses on developments up until the end of 2025 and therefore does not reflect more recent geopolitical impacts.
What trends did ACER monitoring find?
The report highlights Europe’s progress in the clean energy transition, while underlining persistent challenges such as price volatility, supply risks and how wholesale market dynamics affect consumers.
- Wholesale energy prices continued to decline: Gas and electricity prices fell further, continuing the downward trend observed in 2024. However, global competitiveness of energy prices remains a challenge, with both gas and electricity prices structurally higher than in the US.
- Household gas and electricity prices remain high despite falling wholesale prices.
- Renewables lead the power mix, providing 50% of total EU electricity generation. Solar drives the energy transition, with investments in solar generation rising by 41 TWh compared to 2024.
- Electricity price volatility increased: Daily wholesale power price swings were around five times higher than in 2020, highlighting the growing need for flexibility. Rising solar generation lowers daytime prices but creates larger swings between peak and off-peak hours.
- Gas provides evening flexibility: As solar generation drops in the evening, gas-fired power plants are increasingly used to meet demand, which pushes wholesale power prices upward. Power systems with a higher reliance on fossil fuels have both higher average day-ahead prices and higher carbon intensity.
- Extreme weather drives price spikes: A heatwave on 1 July 2025 reduced cooling efficiency at thermal and nuclear plants, while demand surged. In Poland, this led power prices to spike to around 470 EUR/MWh.
- Regional price differences highlight the value of interconnections: Different generation mixes and system flexibility across countries offer opportunities when systems are well interconnected.
- Gas markets remained stable, with hub spreads generally below 2 EUR/MWh.
- EU slashed its reliance on Russian gas, replacing it with global LNG: Russian pipeline imports to the EU dropped by about 162 TWh compared to 2024. Record-high LNG supply, especially in the second half of the year, fully offset this shortfall, helping stabilise prices.
- Low year-end gas storage: Heavy winter withdrawals were only partially compensated by increased summer injections, leaving storage levels 10% below 2024 at the end of winter 2025.
What are ACER’s recommendations?
To support global competitiveness and decarbonisation, Europe should step up efforts to expand energy market integration:
- Make energy prices more efficient and transparent: Ensure efficiency across all price components (energy and supply, network charges and taxation) to improve household affordability and industrial competitiveness.
- Harness flexibility: Expand demand response, electric vehicles (EVs) and battery use to balance supply and demand, reduce price swings and strengthen grid resilience, especially during peak hours.
- Strengthen energy market integration: Expand interconnections to support cross-border renewable use, reducing fossil fuel dependence and improving flexibility and security.
- Diversify gas supply: Higher LNG supplies replaced Russian pipeline gas but increased reliance on US LNG imports. Greater supply diversification, including domestic decarbonised gases, would reduce vulnerability and mitigate the impact of global price volatility.
- Reduce reliance on conventional gas: With gas consumption still well above 2030 targets, further action is needed to cut demand and accelerate the uptake of renewable gases. This should be accompanied by careful infrastructure and tariff planning to limit network cost increases without compromising security of supply.
Highlights
Report
ACER’s Monitoring Report on key developments in EU electricity and gas markets:
- Highlights progress towards Europe’s transition to clean energy and persistent challenges.
- Addresses how to unlock a secure, competitive and clean energy future.
Dashboard
This dashboard provides an overview of renewable electricity generation trends across the EU, including:
day-ahead prices (number of negative and low-price hours);
electricity generation mix;
temperature and wind speed;
demand; and
renewable capacity factors.
Additional information
- Access the underlying datasets.