ACER’s Board of Appeal welcomes new members and alternates for a new five-year mandate, starting on 18 October 2026.

The appointment follows the public call for interest launched by the European Commission earlier this year. Members and alternates were appointed by ACER’s Administrative Board, following a proposal by the Commission and in consultation with ACER’s Board of Regulators.

Who are the new members & alternates?

Mr Carlos Batlle and Mr Adrien De Hauteclocque have been elected as new members. They join Mr Piet Eeckhout, Mr Miro Prek, Ms Keelin O'Brien and Ms Katerina Sardi, who will continue to serve the Board.

Ms Catherine Banet, Mr Ulrich Ehricke, Ms Edit Herczog and Mr Tony Rosten are appointed as alternates for the first time, while Mr Alain Marien and Mr Timo Partanen will continue in their role. Alternates may replace members who are unable to participate in Board proceedings.

Mr Volker Zuleger, ACER Acting Director, welcomes the new members and alternates and thanks those continuing for their commitment. Mr Zuleger also expresses his appreciation to the outgoing members and alternates for their service during the previous mandate.

More on the Board of Appeal

ACER’s Board of Appeal operates as an independent body to address complaints against ACER decisions. It is part of ACER but independent from its administrative and regulatory structure.

The Board is composed of six members and six alternates, serving a five-year mandate (renewable once). They are selected from current or former senior staff of national regulatory authorities, competition authorities or other national or EU institutions with relevant experience in the energy sector.

Read more about ACER’s Board of Appeal and check its latest composition.

Learn more about ACER governance.

The Estonian Competition Authority, Konkurentsiamet, has fined Futugrid Technologies OÜ €16,000 for manipulating the balancing energy market by placing a non-genuine bid (i.e. a bid that was not intended to be executed), which sent misleading signals to the market. 

This is the Authority’s first decision on market manipulation under REMIT (Article 5) and remains subject to appeal.

The REMIT Regulation prohibits market manipulation, including sending false or misleading signals, to protect the integrity and transparency of the EU’s wholesale energy markets.

What happened?

On 31 March 2025, Futugrid offered its capacity on the Baltic balancing capacity market (where providers are paid to remain available for the subsequent balancing energy market), and its offer was accepted. This obliged it to submit a corresponding energy bid for delivery on 1 April 2025.

To fulfil this obligation, Futugrid submitted a bid for manual Frequency Restoration Reserve (mFRR), a reserve that grid operators activate to keep the system in balance. The bid was for 1 MW of downward balancing energy (used when there is a surplus of electricity on the grid), covering the market time unit from 12:00 to 12:15 on 1 April 2025. Futugrid set a very low price (-9,999 €/MWh), with the aim of avoiding activation. The bid was nonetheless activated and directly set the marginal balancing price for that period.

The Estonian Competition Authority found that the bid was not genuine, as Futugrid priced it to avoid activation while still meeting its obligation. The Authority concluded that the bid sent a misleading signal to the market and directly influenced price formation, constituting market manipulation in breach of REMIT.

For more information, access the Estonian Competition Authority’s press release (in Estonian).

See the latest table of REMIT breach sanction decisions adopted by national regulatory authorities.

Check the ACER REMIT Guidance (6.1^st edition) for more information on trading practices that could constitute market manipulation under REMIT.

Interested in further information on enforcement decisions under REMIT? Check out ACER’s REMIT Quarterly reports.

As Europe moves towards greater electrification, retail energy markets will increasingly shape the costs and opportunities for consumers. How electricity is priced and how consumers can respond to changing prices will influence whether households can benefit financially from this transition.

The 2026 Monitoring Report on retail energy markets examines electricity bills, affordability and what the shift to electrification means for consumers. 

What trends did the monitoring find? 

• Household retail prices rose sharply after the 2022 energy crisis and have remained elevated. In 2025, EU households spent an average of €840 on electricity and €1,170 on gas.

• Household electricity expenditure ranges from 1.2% to 3.9% of national median income across the EU, reflecting differences in prices, consumption and household income.

• High electricity-to-gas price ratios can weaken the incentive to electrify. Electricity remains relatively expensive compared to gas, discouraging households from switching to electric technologies. Network charges, taxes and upfront costs often widen this price gap further.

• Most consumers are not exposed to the benefits of flexibility. 7% of EU households are on dynamic price contracts, while over 80% in nine countries are on single fixed-term, fixed-price electricity contracts. This limits their exposure to changing price signals and potential savings. Smart meter rollout is also uneven across Member States: 66% of monitored customers have a smart meter, but coverage remains below 20% in several countries.

• Flexible consumption could reduce bills. ACER analysis shows that switching to dynamic pricing and shifting consumption to lower-price periods could have saved households an average of 20% (around €120) on their electricity bills in 2025. 

• Better contract monitoring is needed to assess consumer outcomes. More complete and comparable contract data are key to assessing market impacts on European consumers.

Looking ahead

Electrification will increase electricity consumption and change when and how consumers use energy, creating new challenges for retail energy markets.

Three areas will be particularly relevant:

• Making electrification financially attractive. Retail electricity prices relative to fossil-fuel prices, technology efficiency and upfront investment costs will shape incentives to electrify.  

• Ensuring network investment delivers value for consumers. Efficient planning and use of existing grids will help contain costs and protect electricity affordability as network investment increases.

• Enhancing monitoring of energy retail contracts to understand consumer choice. Better data on the contracts consumers actually choose will help assess whether appropriate price signals and choices are available as consumption patterns change.

Today, ACER published its Opinion on gas and hydrogen national Network Development Plans (NDPs), assessing alignment between national and EU-level planning.

NDPs are national roadmaps prepared by gas transmission system operators (TSOs) and hydrogen network operators (HNOs) across EU Member States. They set out how each country’s networks should develop in the next decade(s) to meet evolving energy needs. Efficient planning helps ensure the right level of network investment, meeting network users’ needs without unnecessary costs.

What is ACER’s role?

Every two years, ACER assesses how well national plans align with the EU-wide Ten-Year Network Development Plan (EU TYNDP), prepared by the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Gas (ENTSOG).

The EU TYNDP is a non-binding plan that sets out how gas and hydrogen infrastructure across Europe could develop over the coming decade, assessing future system needs. It also plays a role in the selection of Projects of Common and Mutual Interest, as candidate projects must be included in the latest EU TYNDP and assessed using its methodologies. This makes alignment between national and EU-wide planning particularly important.

Following its assessment, ACER recommends ways to improve consistency between the two levels of planning, helping coordinate network development across borders and supporting national investments that reflect wider European needs.

What are ACER’s key findings? 

ACER finds that alignment between national and EU-wide planning varies across Member States and sectors. While gas network planning is well established, planning for hydrogen is still emerging.

Three main issues limit closer alignment:

• incomplete institutional frameworks for hydrogen network planning;

• different levels of transparency and approaches to scenarios, infrastructure needs assessments and the inclusion and presentation of network projects; and

• uneven regulatory oversight.

At the same time, ACER identifies progress in several areas:

• Gas transmission networks are adapting to accommodate biomethane, while hydrogen injection into gas networks is permitted more widely.

• Network planning increasingly accounts for the decommissioning and repurposing of existing infrastructure. 

• Market consultations are used more often to inform hydrogen planning.

What does ACER recommend? 

• Strengthen the institutional framework for national plans, adopting a biennial planning cycle aligned with the EU TYNDP process, and ensuring effective regulatory oversight of NDPs, including their approval and amendment.

• Improve transparency on planning methodologies, regulatory assessments and important project information (e.g. costs), and strengthen stakeholder and market consultation, particularly on future hydrogen demand.

• Enhance cross-border and cross-sectoral coordination, improving cooperation and data exchange between system operators and better aligning national and EU-level planning scenarios.

• Better integrate decarbonisation measures, ensuring that NDPs reflect the most recent changes in the gas and hydrogen sectors, including infrastructure decommissioning, the repurposing of gas infrastructure for hydrogen and biomethane injection projects.

What are the next steps?

ACER invites Member States and system operators to consider its recommendations to make network planning more consistent and transparent.

The next ACER Opinion will be published in 2028.