On 21 July 2026, ACER received a proposal from all nominated electricity market operators (NEMOs) to amend the methodology for the price coupling, continuous trading matching and intraday auction algorithms.

What is the methodology about?

Established under the Capacity Allocation and Congestion Management (CACM) Regulation, the methodology provides a common framework for the algorithms used to simultaneously match electricity market orders and allocate cross-zonal capacities in Europe’s day-ahead and intraday markets. It defines common requirements, timelines and implementation deadlines.

The current methodology was approved by ACER in July 2018 and amended in January 2020 and September 2024.

Why amend the methodology? 

NEMOs propose amendments to the methodology to enable more efficient cross-border electricity exchanges, deliver greater welfare and maintain the secure operation of the power system by:

• enabling the introduction of three intraday auctions using flow-based capacity calculation by updating the timings and delivery of intraday auction results;

• setting a concrete implementation deadline for flow-based allocation in intraday auctions; and

• amending the relevant deadline for publishing the single day-ahead coupling results.

What are the next steps? 

ACER expects to decide on the methodology by 21 January 2027. 

Interested stakeholders are invited to share their views on the topic by 31 August 2026 via ACER-ELE-2026-006@acer.europa.eu.

ACER’s new retail energy markets dashboard offers an interactive, country-by-country view of electricity and gas markets across the EU and Norway. It replaces ACER’s country sheets, bringing together comparable data to explore how retail markets are evolving and how consumers’ behaviour changes alongside the energy transition.

What trends did ACER monitoring find?

With over 270 million electricity and more than 90 million gas customers across the EU and Norway, retail energy markets play an important role in supporting Europe’s energy transition. At the same time, the latest data shows ongoing challenges and significant untapped potential for more active consumer participation.

• Energy bills remain above pre-crisis levels. Retail prices rose sharply after the 2021-2022 energy crisis and remained elevated, with gas prices still nearly 70% higher than before the crisis. On average, EU households spent around €840 on electricity and €1,170 on gas in 2025.
• Household electricity and gas consumption is rising modestly, highlighting the importance of enabling consumers to actively manage their energy use.
• Fixed contracts remain the most common contract type. Around 52% of household electricity customers are on single fixed-price, fixed-term contracts, while only 7% are on dynamic-price contracts, pointing to significant unexploited capacity for demand-side flexibility.
• Smart meter rollout progresses unevenly. 66% of household customers monitored across the EU and Norway have a smart meter. While deployment exceeds 80% in most EU Member States, it remains below 20% in several countries, limiting consumers’ ability to adjust their consumption in real time.

What are the next steps?

The retail energy markets dashboard will be updated annually as new data becomes available, allowing to monitor progress across all indicators.

On 17 July 2026, the national regulatory authorities of the Core capacity calculation region (Core NRAs) asked ACER for a three-month extension to decide on the proposal to amend the Core intraday capacity calculation methodology. The proposal was submitted by the transmission system operators of the Core region (Core TSOs).

The Core region is the EU’s largest electricity capacity calculation region, covering 13 Member States: Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.

ACER intends to ensure a timely decision on the matter.

What is the Core intraday capacity calculation methodology? 

The methodology determines how much cross-zonal transmission capacity is available for intraday electricity trading in the Core region. 

First approved in 2020, the methodology would now be amended for the sixth time to reflect the continued development of capacity calculation and support EU electricity market integration through more efficient and secure allocation of cross-zonal capacity.

ACER has adopted a Decision amending the electricity redispatching and countertrading cost sharing methodology for the Core capacity calculation region, concluding the review process initiated in October 2025.

What is a capacity calculation region?

A capacity calculation region (CCR) is a set of electrically interdependent bidding zone borders, where capacity calculation, regional operational security, redispatching and countertrading costs sharing tasks are coordinated by that region’s transmission system operators (TSOs).

The Core region is the EU’s largest electricity CCR, covering 19 bidding zone borders and 16 TSOs across 13 Member States: Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.

What is the methodology about? 

The cost sharing methodology allocates the costs of redispatching and countertrading remedial actions within a CCR. These actions are triggered to address network congestions occurring within the region. 

Specifically, this methodology tracks how each remedial action affects congested network elements and assigns the related costs to the responsible TSOs, based on the order of flow types (loop, internal, allocated and power-shifting transformer flows). Loop flows are charged first, however, the portion below a given threshold is to be exempted.

What did ACER decide?

After reviewing the methodology and consulting Core TSOs and regulatory authorities, ACER introduced the following changes:

• requiring Core TSOs to analyse and provide the loop flow threshold;

• confirming the Power Flow Colouring (PFC) method for decomposing physical flows, providing a detailed explanation in the decision.

Next steps

The Core TSOs must implement the amended long-term capacity calculation methodology as soon as possible, along with the Core Regional Operational Security Coordination (ROSC) methodology.