Issue 03 · 11 September 2026

This week’s takeaways

• European markets are looking for faster ways to expand grid capacity.
• Belgium and the United Kingdom are trying to get more from existing wires while new lines are built.
• Italy will make queued connection-capacity data more transparent to help free up unused grid headroom.

How to read this

↑ Tailwind   ↓ Headwind   • Neutral

Tailwind helps the businesses affected. Headwind adds cost, delay or risk. Neutral means no clear overall benefit or drawback, though the change may still matter.

Potential means the effect depends on a proposal being adopted or another condition being met. Consultations are proposals open for feedback. They are listed with their closing dates in the diary at the end.

Our six themes
Market Design · Taxes, Subsidies and Public Programmes · Siting, Permitting and Land Use · Grid · Environmental Markets · Supply Chains

The regulatory picture

Updates in this edition, by market and likely effect. Bar length shows how many updates we cover, not how big their impact is. Consultations in the diary are included, and cross-border measures appear in each affected market. Select a market to jump to its section.

↑ Tailwind • Neutral ↓ Headwind

This week’s deep dive

🇮🇹 Italy · Grid

Italy tries to free up grid capacity

Italy's Minister of the Environment and Energy Security Gilberto Pichetto signed a decree requiring Terna, Italy's TSO, to publish the maximum additional capacity available for new renewable energy and storage projects to connect to the network. It also creates specific criteria the grid operator must use to determine available capacity and how it gets allocated, and it must publish available capacity at least 30 days before the registration window opens.

When a project applies to connect to the grid, it reserves a slice of the network's capacity. Many projects stall because they fail to get permits and thus never get built, but their reservation sits there, blocking others. The result is a grid that looks full but in reality has plenty of space. The ministry calls this ‘virtual saturation’. Real projects get turned away from capacity that is being held by projects that will never exist.

Today, finding out whether a site has a viable connection largely means applying and waiting. Published capacity figures give developers a resource against which to check first and rank potential connection sites by where available capacity exists. This should allow developers to spend less time and money on sites at clogged connection points and focus instead on viable projects. The 30-day notice period gives them additional time to plan, as well. At the same time, the number of connection opportunities should increase as capacity held up by stalled projects is opened up.

What to watch: Watch how quickly Terna publishes location-specific headroom and whether stale connection requests are actually released.

EIB lends €1 billion for Princess Elisabeth Island

7 September ·  Grid  Update · ↑ Potential Tailwind

The European Investment Bank (EIB) granted a €1 billion green credit facility, on favourable terms, to Elia Transmission Belgium to finance Princess Elisabeth Island, an artificial energy island under construction in the North Sea that will collect and transmit power from offshore wind assets to the mainland grid. The favourable terms reduce Elia’s cost of capital, reducing the risk of a project that future offshore wind projects will need to connect to, which should serve as downward pressure on their own grid charges and connection risk.

EirGrid and SONI publish generator network tariffs for 2026/27

7 September ·  Grid  Update · • Neutral

EirGrid and the System Operator for Northern Ireland (SONI) published their approved Generator Transmission Use of System (GTUoS) tariffs for the 12 months beginning on 1 October 2026. The GTUoS is the island-wide annual tariff that every generator must pay to use the transmission network; it is an annual capacity charge based on a project’s maximum export capacity. The tariffs also create a new pool for ‘Ireland TSO Connected BESS’ because, following a CRU decision, battery units in Ireland must pay GTUoS from 2026/27 onwards. Previously, BESS projects in Ireland did not pay GTUoS at all, while those in Northern Ireland already did.

Walloon regulator takes note of Elia’s grid plan, with reservations

4 September ·  Grid  Update · • Neutral

The Walloon Energy Commission (CWaPE) took note of Elia’s ten-year local transmission network adaptation plan, subject to reservations, stating that its decision is not an approval of the plan. Although CWaPE found significant shortcomings, including past failures to achieve planned investment levels, it elected not to request revisions at this time, but ordered the shortcomings to be addressed in the next plan.

Belgium sets a legal deadline for the offshore grid extension

10 September ·  Grid  Update · ↑ Potential Tailwind

A royal decree signed by Philippe, King of the Belgians, on 27 August and published on 10 September establishes a binding legal deadline to bring each part of the planned extension of the Modular Offshore Grid into service. As of today, only Phase 1 has a set date to reach operation, which is 1 October 2031. The Modular Offshore Grid extension is shared infrastructure that future offshore wind capacity will need to connect through, so a firm date for operation reduces interconnection timing risk for those projects.

Fingrid moves FCR procurement to the hourly market

8 September ·  Market Design  Update · ↑ Potential Tailwind

Fingrid will not purchase any frequency containment reserves (FCR), which are used to balance the electricity system, from the annual market in 2027, electing to procure reserves only from the hourly reserve market. The TSO claims this will simplify the market, improve reserve availability, increase predictability, and minimise customer costs. A shift in procurement to the hourly market should support BESS, as they benefit from shorter intervals that reduce forecasting error.

SEM Committee opens the capacity market to foreign providers

8 September ·  Market Design  Update · • Neutral

The Single Electricity Market (SEM) Committee decided on a framework for allowing foreign capacity providers to directly participate in Ireland’s CRM. These assets will participate in a pre-selection auction for foreign units, the winners of which will then compete in the main CRM auctions alongside domestic generators. As this is a policy framework, the market design and operational rules are still in the works. While this represents an opening of the Irish market to generators from continental Europe, primarily France via the Celtic Interconnector, it exposes domestic generators to greater competition.

Italy orders Terna to publish available grid capacity

8 September ·  Grid  Update · ↑ Potential Tailwind

Environment and Energy Security Minister Gilberto Pichetto signed a decree that will require Terna to publicly disclose the maximum additional capacity available for new renewable and storage projects. The goal is to reduce the number of renewable and storage assets that indefinitely take up grid capacity but never achieve authorisation to connect to the grid. The decree establishes specific criteria Terna must use for determining and allocating available capacity. Among these is a requirement for the grid operator to publish available capacity at least 30 days before the capacity registration window opens.

Lithuania lets regulated companies hedge wholesale prices

4 September ·  Market Design  Update · • Neutral

The State Energy Regulatory Council (VERT) amended its price-setting methodology for transmission, distribution, and public-supply services. The new rules will allow regulated companies to hedge wholesale electricity price risk and recover the cost via a price cap. These companies must submit hedging guidelines to VERT, which assesses them within 15 working days, before using derivatives to manage their price risk. When seeking to set or adjust the price cap, companies will be required to report the volume hedged, the cost of the hedge, and their rationale, with comparison to an alternative course of action. For renewable developers with public supply contracts or who sell into the balancing market, this hedging could mean more consistent demand and fewer emergency interventions.

Poland sets a new tariff methodology and keeps storage charge relief

4 September ·  Market Design  Update · ↑ Potential Tailwind

The Minister of Energy published an ordinance establishing the methodology that electricity market participants must use to build and calculate regulated tariffs and settle payments in electricity trading. The ordinance retains the existing reduction in network charges in proportion to the energy that BESS or pumped-hydro storage return to the grid, and adds an option to create incentives for flexible, off-peak use. The retained network charge treatment keeps storage systems’ operating costs down, and the incentives act as a further boost to variable energy resources.

ANRE approves Transelectrica’s ten-year grid plan

4 September ·  Grid  Update · ↑ Potential Tailwind

The National Energy Regulatory Authority (ANRE) approved Transelectrica’s ten-year grid investment plan. The plan, which maps Transelectrica’s transmission investments for the next decade, includes 117 investments to modernise Romania’s grid. It requires Transelectrica to show how dynamic line rating and high-temperature conductors will add cross-border capacity, signalling short-term capacity increases on existing transmission corridors. ANRE also ordered Transelectrica to submit, within 30 days, an acceleration programme for unfinished interconnection works with Hungary and Bulgaria in order to bring Romania’s cross-border trading capacity in line with the EU’s 70% requirement. Additional cross-border capacity should open export routes and contribute to price convergence between these markets.

Spain fast-tracks projects at just transition nodes

7 September ·  Taxes, Subsidies and Public Programmes  Update · ↑ Potential Tailwind

Spain’s Council of Ministers, on a proposal from the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO), declared that every renewable and storage project that wins a competitive tender for grid-evacuation capacity at a ‘just transition node’ will be automatically designated as ‘strategic energy facilities’. This classification grants priority processing for permitting, environmental reviews, and other authorisations. It amounts to a fast-track permitting process to get more solar, wind, and BESS connected to the grid.

Svenska kraftnät invites tenders for the winter strategic reserve

4 September ·  Market Design  Update · ↑ Potential Tailwind

Svenska kraftnät is inviting qualified strategic reserve suppliers to submit tenders for the upcoming winter season. The strategic reserve is a mechanism to maintain power adequacy and security during periods of acute stress, offering RES another revenue stream that can support existing and future renewable projects. It is activated when there is elevated risk that other balancing resources will be unable to guarantee stability in the electricity system.

Sweden moves to a supplier of last resort from July 2027

9 September ·  Market Design  Update · • Neutral

On 1 July 2027, Sweden’s default electricity trading agreements will be replaced by a last-resort supplier with a duty to supply system under the new Electricity Market Act, and the Energy Markets Inspectorate (Ei) has begun preparing for the transition. These agreements provide a safety net for consumers who do not have an active supply contract. Under the new arrangement, last-resort suppliers must reach agreements with consumers to provide electricity if and when their primary supplier is unable to. Ei plans to set out its detailed rules in spring 2027.

Northern Ireland moves RHI installations to fixed closure payments

10 September ·  Taxes, Subsidies and Public Programmes  Update · • Neutral

The Economy Minister made the Renewable Heat Incentive Scheme (Closure) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2026, which, once approved by the Assembly, convert existing accredited biomass, solar thermal and heat pump installations in Northern Ireland into ‘closure accredited installations’ that will receive a fixed annual closure payment, rather than periodic support linked to their output. These installations will continue to receive support for their 20-year tariff life, but the new fixed payment means that those running above their historic load factor will lose out on the upside from output-linked support, whereas those running modestly below are better protected, as payments are only cut where output falls below two-thirds of normal levels.

UK lays its CBAM implementing regulations

9 September ·  Supply Chains  Update · • Neutral

HM Treasury and HMRC laid before Parliament their implementing regulations for the UK’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM). These new regulations detail the rules importers must follow to calculate, report, and verify their imported emissions. CBAM applies a charge to the embodied carbon emissions of imported products to equalise their carbon price with those paid by domestic producers under the UK Emissions Trading Scheme (UK ETS). CBAM applies to certain high-emitting sectors, such as steel, aluminium, cement, and fertiliser. On top of the costs of complying with CBAM, since covered sectors include RES inputs, CBAM will likely increase supply chain costs for developers. At the same time, it intends to increase the competitiveness of lower-carbon UK producers of these goods.

Closing by 18 September