With the economic recovery in 2021, global gas demand bounced back to pre-pandemic levels and outstripped supply. Despite increasing LNG deliveries to Europe (linked with the rise in gas prices), sharply decreasing Russian gas pipeline supplies and the related geopolitical uncertainty put strong upward pressure on prices. In 2022, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine heightened the crisis resulting in unprecedentedly high gas and electricity prices that severely impact consumers, retail suppliers, market participants and others.
While this ACER assessment is likely to be read against the backdrop of the current energy crisis, its main focus is a somewhat longer-term perspective on the EU’s wholesale electricity market design, in line with the original task assigned to ACER by the European Commission.
Well before the height of the current crisis, the EU’s wholesale electricity market design has been the subject of debate, in particular as to whether the current market design is fit for purpose given the significant changes needed to deliver the clean energy transition or whether, and if so, to what extent, the market design would need further adjustment.