Energy Community Regulatory Board Marks 2025 as year of landmark progress in transparency and regional market Integration
Energy Community Regulatory Board Marks 2025 as year of landmark progress in transparency and regional market Integration
The Energy Community Regulatory Board’s newly published 2025 Annual Report documents a year of significant support for fair, transparent, and increasingly integrated gas and electricity markets across the Energy Community. Throughout 2025, its work focused on strengthening the regulatory sector to ensure that reforms translate into more active consumer participation and improved cross-border market functioning. It did so by coordinating regulators, monitoring energy markets, and promoting regulatory convergence and effective implementation of the EU energy acquis across the region.
“This year has been defined by significant progress in our mission to foster energy market integration and regulatory excellence,” stated then-ECRB President, Mr. Ymer Fejzullahu. “Ensuring that regulators are technically equipped and institutionally independent is a prerequisite for successful energy market integration and a secure energy transition”.
CONSUMER EMPOWERMENT
Achieving a competitive, flexible, and decarbonised energy system will require consumers across the Energy Community to play a more active role in energy markets. Recognising this, the ECRB strengthened consumer protection efforts through cooperation with European and Mediterranean regulators (CEER and MEDREG). In a key assessment of current frameworks designed to enable such participation, it identified gaps and proposed solutions to support more active consumer engagement through tools such as dynamic pricing, demand response, and citizen energy communities.
ELECTRICITY AND GAS MARKET DEVELOPMENTS
To promote gas and electricity market integration during 2025, the Board intensified its efforts to strengthen regulatory alignment across electricity and gas sectors and to support the consistent implementation of the Electricity Integration Package – legislation that, once transposed by Contracting Parties, will set the stage for EU- Energy Community Electricity market coupling.
In electricity markets, the ECRB reviewed grid connection rules, including through its monitoring of the Network Code on Requirements for Grid Connection of Generators, alongside an assessment of tariff methodologies, in which it identified reforms needed to modernise transmission and distribution tariffs to support larger, more integrated electricity markets and the energy transition. In gas markets, a key ECRB analysis suggested that bundling capacity at interconnection points by 2026—so that companies can book cross-border gas transport in a single, simpler step—would improve cross-border flows and market efficiency.
ENFORCEMENT AND TRANSPARENCY MILESTONES
A historic milestone in wholesale market integrity was reached with the issuance of the first-ever REMIT-related fine in the Energy Community, delivered by the Ukrainian regulator. This achievement demonstrated Ukraine’s active implementation of REMIT principles and highlighted the growing importance of vigorous enforcement to ensure confidence in wholesale energy markets and to protect consumers from market abuse.
The ECRB also advanced transparency in infrastructure investment by establishing Unit Investment Cost indicators through its TEN-E Task Force. These benchmarks help regulators assess whether energy projects are cost-efficient, supporting more transparent and accountable investment decisions across the region.
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The full ECRB Annual Report 2025 and all related publications are accessible on the Energy Community website. You can find a list of the publications mentioned in this press release in the sidebar.
About ECRB: The Energy Community Regulatory Board is the independent regional body of energy regulators. It serves as a coordination platform to harmonise regulatory rules and develop best practices for the benefit of all citizens in the Energy Community.