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Monitoring and reporting on the electricity and natural gas sectors

1. ACER, in close cooperation with the Commission, the Member States and the relevant national authorities, including the regulatory authorities, and without prejudice to the competences of competition authorities, shall monitor the wholesale and retail markets in electricity and natural gas, in particular the levels and the formation of retail and wholesale prices, in order to facilitate that relevant authorities can identify possible anti-competitive, unfair or untransparent behaviour by market operators, and with regard to compliance with the consumer rights laid down in Directive (EU) 2019/944 and Directive (EU) 2024/1788, the impact of market developments on household customers, access to the networks including access of electricity produced from renewable energy sources, the progress made with regard to interconnectors, potential barriers to cross-border trade, including the impact of blending hydrogen into the natural gas system and barriers to the cross-border flow of biomethane, regulatory barriers for new entrants on the market and smaller market participants, including citizen energy communities and renewable energy communities, State interventions preventing prices from reflecting actual scarcity, such as those set out in Article 10(4) of Regulation (EU) 2019/943, the performance of the Member States in the area of security of supply of electricity on the basis of the results of the European resource adequacy assessment as referred to in Article 23 of that Regulation, taking into account, in particular, the ex post evaluation referred to in Article 17 of Regulation (EU) 2019/941.

ACER, in close cooperation with the Commission, the Member States and the relevant national authorities, including the regulatory authorities, and without prejudice to the competences of competition authorities, shall monitor the hydrogen markets, in particular the impact of market developments on hydrogen customers, access to the hydrogen network, including access to the network of hydrogen produced from renewable energy sources, the progress made with regard to interconnectors and potential barriers to cross-border trade.

2. ACER shall publish annually a report on the results of the monitoring referred to in paragraph 1. In that report, it shall identify any barriers to the completion of the internal markets for electricity, natural gas and hydrogen.

3. When publishing its annual report, ACER may submit to the European Parliament and to the Commission an opinion on the possible measures to remove the barriers referred to in paragraph 2.

4. ACER shall issue a best practices report on transmission and distribution tariffs methodologies pursuant to Article 18(9) of Regulation (EU) 2019/943.

ACER shall issue a report on the impact of using peak-shaving products on the Union electricity market during a crisis following the assessment pursuant to Article 7a(7) of Regulation (EU) 2019/943 and a report on the impact of developing peak-shaving products on the Union electricity market under normal market circumstances following the assessment pursuant to Article 7a(8) of that Regulation.

5. ACER shall issue a report pursuant to Article 19e(7) of Regulation (EU) 2019/943 analysing the national reports on the estimated flexibility needs and providing recommendations on issues of cross-border relevance regarding the findings of the regulatory authority or another authority or entity designated by a Member State.

6. ACER shall publish studies comparing the efficiency of Union transmission system operators’ costs pursuant to Article 19(2) of Regulation (EU) 2024/1789.

7. ACER shall submit opinions providing a harmonised format for the publication of technical information on access to hydrogen transmission networks and publish a monitoring report on congestion at interconnection points pursuant to the guidelines laid down in Annex I to Regulation (EU) 2024/1789.

8. Every 3 years, ACER, after consulting Member States, shall establish and make publicly available a set of indicators and corresponding reference values for the comparison of unit investment costs linked to measurement, quantification, monitoring, reporting, verification and reduction, including venting and flaring, of methane emissions for comparable projects. It shall issue recommendations on indicators and reference values for unit investment costs for the purposes of complying with the obligations under Regulation (EU) 2024/1787 of the European Parliament and of the Council () as provided in Article 3 of that Regulation.