yearly benefits from selected market integration projects.
EU electricity market integration
2026 Monitoring Report
The integration of electricity markets across the EU is central to achieving a secure, affordable and sustainable energy system. Cross-border trade increases competition, improving affordability for consumers. An integrated EU electricity market supports more renewables, strengthens security of supply through resource sharing and improves system resilience.
Over the past decade, market integration has made substantial progress, with multiple projects delivered. However, significant benefits of market integration remain untapped due to implementation challenges.
This ACER Monitoring Report examines the progress of EU electricity wholesale market integration and its benefits. It covers key developments across all market timeframes (forward, day-ahead, intraday, balancing), as well as development in cross-zonal capacity availability and congestion management.
What trends did ACER's monitoring find?
ACER's monitoring finds progress:
- Cross-border trade generates about €32 billion in economic surplus each year in the day-ahead market alone. Further integration over all markets could deliver at least an additional €4 billion per year.
- Day-ahead trading has largely moved to 15-minute products. Introduced on 1 October 2025 to better reflect rapidly changing system conditions, they now account for almost 90% of all electricity traded in the day-ahead market.
- Market participants are trading closer to real time. Since January 2026, cross-zonal intraday trading has been possible up to 30 minutes before delivery on some borders. Around 20% of these trades now take place in the final hour before delivery, allowing market participants to adjust their positions closer to real-time.
- Balancing market integration delivers significant benefits. European balancing platforms generated over €1 billion in economic surplus in 2025 alone. Regional cooperation in balancing capacity procurement has also delivered substantial benefits by reducing costs and enabling more reserve needs to be met.
- Interest is growing in pairing renewables with storage. Power purchase agreements (long-term contracts between sellers and buyers) increasingly combine renewable generation with energy storage, supporting investment in renewable energy and increasing flexibility.
However, significant challenges remain:
- Forward market liquidity remains concentrated in a few bidding zones and trading activity falls rapidly for electricity contracts traded beyond one year-ahead.
- Price differences between bidding zones are widening, increasing the importance of making sufficient transmission capacity available for cross-zonal trade.
- The availability of cross-zonal capacity is still lagging. The requirement to make at least 70% of capacity available for trading across borders is not yet fully implemented throughout the EU. Markets that operate closer to real time, such as intraday and balancing markets, are particularly affected by limited access to cross-zonal trade.
- The cost of managing grid congestion is rising, up from €4.3 billion in 2024 to €5.4 billion in 2025, with a growing share linked to voltage control following the Iberian blackout. Beyond the cost to network users, physical congestion also results in the curtailment of renewables.
Where could further progress bring benefits?
ACER's analysis points to several areas where further work could help unlock these benefits:
- Speed up delayed market integration projects. They could have delivered an economic surplus of approximately €700 million in 2025 had they been implemented on time.
- Reform the framework for long-term transmission rights, so market participants in less liquid bidding zones can have access to equally effective hedging possibilities.
- Design public support schemes to minimise market distortions, for example by encouraging electricity producers to reduce renewable generation when prices are negative.
- Ensure cross-zonal capacity is maximised, including by fully applying the 70% minimum capacity requirement and implementing flow-based allocation closer to real time. In the Core capacity calculation region alone, flow-based allocation in intraday auctions could have generated over €460 million in economic surplus in 2025.
- Secure voltage control resources through efficient and competitive processes, as violations of voltage limits in the network are becoming increasingly common.
- Complete the accession of all transmission system operators to the European balancing platforms, expand balancing capacity cooperation, and facilitate participation of new flexibility resources (such as batteries or demand response) in balancing services.
Looking ahead
Market integration already brings clear benefits, but its full value has yet to be realised. As renewable generation grows, cross-zonal trading, particularly close to real time, will become increasingly valuable. Further integration and the full application of existing rules, such as the minimum 70% requirement, would deliver significant gains for consumers in the coming years.
EU electricity market integration
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Highlights
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€7 billion
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€5.4 billion
cost of managing grid congestion in 2025 (up from €4.3 billion in 2024).
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95%
reduction of hours with balancing energy prices for automatic frequency restoration reserve exceeding ±7,500 EUR/MWh.
Report
ACER's 2026 Monitoring Report on the progress of EU electricity wholesale market integration:
- analyses the benefits of market integration in the EU;
- examines recent developments in long-term, day-ahead, intraday and balancing markets;
- tracks progress in maximising cross-zonal capacity;
- explores how congestion management needs and costs evolved in 2025; and
- estimates the potential benefits of extending day-ahead market coupling to the Energy Community Contracting Parties.
Infographic
Interested in the main highlights of the report?
Dashboard
The electricity market dashboard complements the Monitoring Report with more detailed data and analysis on EU market integration. It follows the structure of the report and covers:
- long-term markets;
- day-ahead and intraday markets;
- balancing markets; and
- congestion management.
Users can filter interactive figures by time span, data granularity, geographical scope, market segment and product or indicator.