Issue 07 · 16 October 2026

This week’s takeaways

• Batteries are getting new revenue streams. Italy opened automatic frequency restoration reserves (aFRR) to aggregated small plants and batteries, Czechia launched a linked day-ahead bid for storage, and Dutch grid operators posted 496 MW of paid flexibility demand.
• Governments are speeding up grid build-out. Switzerland’s parliament passed a law to fast-track power lines and battery sites, and France approved grid works ahead of demand in two industrial zones.
• Grid access will be determined by priority. Denmark will begin ranking connection requests on 19 October, and Austria will waive network charges for standalone batteries that accept curtailment. That is this week’s deep dive.

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

🇩🇰 Denmark · Grid

Denmark ranks grid connection requests by priority

On 14 October, Denmark’s Ministry of Climate, Energy and Utilities published an order that replaces Denmark’s previous network connection system. Until now, Danish network companies connected projects broadly in the order they applied, so an early applicant could hold up a more useful project. The order replaces that queue with four priority groups, served in a fixed order.

It will apply from 19 October under an amendment to the Electricity Supply Act dated 7 October.

The first group covers households as well as businesses using up to 3 MW and critical services such as hospitals, water works, and defence. The second group includes wind and solar farms and electrification projects. The third is batteries and other storage built beyond a site’s own needs. Data centres come last. Within groups two through four, a project rated “grid-friendly” moves up the queue. Until the Danish Utility Regulator approves methods for judging this, a project counts as grid-friendly if it accepts limited grid access.

Where the grid is short of capacity, network companies must refuse batteries and data centres if connecting them would take capacity needed by projects in higher groups. A refused project can keep its place in the queue if planned grid expansion, or grid products not yet on offer, should let it connect within a reasonable time, and it can appeal to the regulator within four weeks. Capacity already granted in a binding connection agreement is not taken away.

Wind and solar developers gain most: they now rank ahead of standalone batteries and data centres. A battery built beside a wind or solar farm counts as storage only for the capacity beyond the site’s own needs, so a battery sized to the site’s own needs stays in the farm’s priority group. Standalone batteries in congested areas will need to accept curtailment and fit within spare capacity to connect. Data centres face the longest wait. Finland may follow: Fingrid, its grid operator, called for quick adoption of a similar priority procedure on 9 October.

What to watch: Energinet’s first published pool results, the first refusals appealed to the Danish Utility Regulator, and the methods the regulator approves for judging grid friendliness.

Core grid operators finish intraday capacity calculation

15 October ·  Market Design  Announcement · • Neutral

Eighteen grid operators in the Core region, the central European countries that calculate cross-border capacity together, started the last of their intraday capacity calculations on 14 October. Capacity calculation sets how much power may cross each border, which caps cross-border intraday trading. The new step recalculates capacity for 18:00 to midnight, with results at about 16:00 on the day of delivery. Solar, wind, and battery operators correcting their evening positions will trade against more up-to-date figures. However, it changes no prices or charges, and the operators have not said how much extra capacity will be released.

Austria exempts grid-friendly batteries from network charges

12 October ·  Grid / Market Design  Regulation · ↑ Tailwind

E-Control, Austria’s energy regulator, set the principles for network charges from 1 January 2027. Standalone batteries of at least 1 MW that qualify as “system-serving” will pay no network or grid-loss charges on the power they draw for up to 20 years, eliminating a major running cost in exchange for accepting curtailment. To qualify, a battery must accept that the grid operator can curtail its charging and discharging without compensation, so that connecting it needs no grid reinforcement. The operator sets the maximum curtailment for each hour of each month in the connection contract, for five years, and gives the actual curtailment by 06:00 the day before; both sides can agree to revisit the maximum after a year. On the distribution grid it must also connect at a substation with a high share of solar or wind that sends power back to the grid for more than 2,500 hours per year. Co-located batteries miss out: a qualifying battery must feed all the power it draws back into the grid, with no other consuming equipment on site. The ordinance caps the exemption at 5 GW nationwide.

Czech day-ahead market adds a linked bid for batteries

12 October ·  Market Design  Announcement · ↑ Tailwind

The Electricity and Gas Market Operator launched a new bid type called a “loop block” on the Czech day-ahead market, the daily auction that sets the next day’s power prices. Trading started on 14 October for delivery on 15 October. A loop block pairs two block bids, each an offer to buy or sell a fixed amount over several hours. One block buys and the other sells, and the auction accepts or rejects both together. A battery can bid to charge in cheap hours and to discharge in expensive hours as a single offer, eliminating the risk of having only half its trade accepted.

Denmark ranks grid connection requests by priority

14 October ·  Grid  Order · • Neutral

The Ministry of Climate, Energy and Utilities issued an order that ranks grid connection requests in four priority groups from 19 October, with wind and solar ahead of batteries and data centres. For more, see this week’s deep dive.

France proposes lower de-rating factors for batteries

9 October ·  Market Design  Decision · ↓ Potential Headwind

The Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE) proposed the parameters for France’s first long-term capacity auction, for winter 2030-2031. The capacity market pays plants and batteries to be available at winter peaks, on the share of their power set by a de-rating factor. For batteries, CRE’s figures give 35% for a four-hour battery, 21% for two hours and 11% for one hour, up to 45% for six hours or more. CRE says this is a sharp cut that puts France at the low end of Europe’s capacity markets. The factors fall as more batteries are built, because each adds less at the peak; CRE assumed 5.5 GW in France by 2030. Storage may take at most 0.9 GW of the 3 GW of multi-year contracts, and the price cap stays at €72k per MW.

France’s ground-mounted solar tender prices fall 23%

9 October ·  Taxes, Subsidies and Public Programmes  Decision · ↓ Headwind

CRE published its report on the 9th round of France’s tender for ground-mounted solar. Bids for 5,359 MWp competed for 925 MWp, and the minister named 125 winners for 931 MWp. The average winning price fell 23%, from €79.48 to €61.33 per MWh, so developers will need lower bids to win later rounds. CRE attributes the fall to stronger competition, helped by a jump in bids from projects under 5 MWp. This was also the first round to apply the European Union’s supply-resilience test, and the declared European share of inverters rose from 11% to 83%.

France builds grid capacity ahead of demand in two industrial zones

9 October ·  Grid  Decision · • Neutral

CRE authorised RTE, France’s transmission grid operator, to build connections ahead of demand at Fos-Lavéra, near Marseille, and Saint-Avold, in Moselle. The works will create 2,500 MW and 1,100 MW of capacity for new industrial connections from 2029, with some available earlier. Each connecting company pays a fixed share of the cost: €116k per MW at Fos-Lavéra for the highest voltages, after a 30% reduction, and €20k per MW at Saint-Avold. Work at Saint-Avold will start only once industrial users commit. CRE left €104 million of the Fos-Lavéra works, which will also serve future offshore wind farms, out of the industrial share.

Greece set to cancel 918 MW of renewable licences

8 October ·  Grid / Siting, Permitting and Land Use  Decision · • Neutral

The Regulatory Authority for Waste, Energy and Water (RAAEY), Greece’s energy regulator, published a provisional list of 50 renewable production licences, about 918 MW, that the law cancels automatically because their holders did not submit a complete request for a final grid connection offer by 30 September. Most of the capacity is wind (577 MW) and solar (301 MW). Holders can object until 23 October. Cancelled projects drop out of the queue for grid connection offers, so buyers of Greek projects should check their licences are not on it.

Italy lets aggregated small units sell automatic reserve abroad

9 October ·  Market Design  Decision · ↑ Tailwind

Terna, Italy’s grid operator, published grid-code changes that the Regulatory Authority for Energy, Networks and Environment approved. Virtual zonal units, groups of small plants and batteries that Terna dispatches together, can now sell aFRR through the Platform for the International Coordination of Automated Frequency Restoration and Stable System Operation, Europe’s shared platform for that reserve. Until now these units could offer only other balancing services and were shut out of automatic reserve. Owners of small batteries and solar plants gain a reserve market shared with other European countries.

Italy speeds up environmental screening for energy projects

8 October ·  Siting, Permitting and Land Use  Decree · ↑ Tailwind

The Government issued a decree-law that gives screening of projects in Italy’s national energy and recovery plans to the specialist commission that already runs their full environmental assessments. Screening decides whether a project needs a full assessment, but developers currently face delay at this step. The decree also removes a 2023 cap on refunding assessment fees when the ministry decides late, funding refunds of up to €5 million a year. Parliament must convert it into law within 60 days or it expires.

Latvia prorates wind farms’ first-year community payment

12 October ·  Taxes, Subsidies and Public Programmes  Regulation · • Neutral

The Cabinet of Ministers amended the rules on the yearly payment wind farms make to their local community, which stays at €2,500 per MW. In its first year, a farm now pays only for the full months after it is cleared to connect to the grid. A 100 MW farm cleared on 15 September pays for three months: €62,500.

Dutch grid operators post 496 MW of flexibility demand

13 October ·  Grid / Market Design  Announcement · ↑ Tailwind

Liander, Enexis, and Stedin, three Dutch regional grid operators, launched a public auction service on their joint congestion platform, where they post how much flexible power they need, where, and when. They opened with 496 MW of immediate need. Congestion service providers, which pool large customers able to cut or shift their use or output, bid for contracts, and the operator picks the most efficient bid. TenneT, the national grid operator, will join later. Batteries and flexible sites in congested areas gain a visible source of contracted revenue.

Switzerland fast-tracks power lines and battery sites

13 October ·  Grid / Siting, Permitting and Land Use  Law · ↑ Potential Tailwind

The Federal Assembly, Switzerland’s parliament, passed a law to speed up building and upgrading the grid. Lines above 36 kV can be rebuilt on or beside their existing route, even at higher voltage, without a new spatial plan. Grid projects gain a national interest that in principle outranks other national interests, except in protected moors and reserves. Courts must rule on appeals against major grid projects within 180 days of the final written submissions. Authorities can permit a battery outside building zones if it sits next to a power plant, substation, or similar site with road access. Voters can still demand a referendum until 21 January 2027, and the Federal Council will set the start date.

Closing by 23 October