ACER Regulation (EU 2019-942)

Regulation (EU) 2019/942 of 5 June 2019 establishing a European Union Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (recast) — the ACER Regulation. Part of the Clean Energy Package; replaces Regulation (EC) 713/2009. The raw is the original 2019 Official Journal text (OJ L 158/22, 14.6.2019), not a consolidated version. Regulation (EU) 2024/1747 later amended 2019/942 (Source - Electricity Market Design Reform Regulation (EU 2024-1747)): it added ACER opinions and information powers towards the single allocation platform (Arts. 2, 3(2), 4(9)) and a new Art. 5(9) under which ACER approves the ENTSO-E/EU DSO entity flexibility-needs methodology (Art. 19e(6) of Regulation 2019/943). The provisions summarised below are unchanged by it.

What it does

Sets up ACER (seat, governance, budget) and defines its tasks. Only the tasks that matter for flexibility and market design are summarized here.

• Art. 4 — TSO/DSO cooperation: ACER gives opinions on the statutes and work programmes of the ENTSO for Electricity, ENTSO for Gas and the EU DSO entity, monitors how they execute their tasks, and approves the methodology for using congestion income under Art. 19(4) of Regulation (EU) 2019/943 (where appropriate after requesting updates to the TSOs’ drafts).
• Art. 5 — network codes and guidelines: ACER submits non-binding framework guidelines to the Commission, reviews ENTSO network-code proposals, and decides on methodologies where regulators cannot agree. Art. 5(7): “ACER shall carry out its tasks as regards the bidding zone review pursuant to Article 14(5) of Regulation (EU) 2019/943.” The regulation gives ACER no other bidding-zone power; the operative rules sit in Regulation 2019/943 Art. 14.
• Art. 6(10) — cross-border decisions: ACER decides individual regulatory issues with cross-border effect that need a joint decision by at least two regulators, where the power has been conferred on the regulators by a legislative act, by a pre-4 July 2019 network code or guideline, or by an implementing-act code, and either the regulators have not agreed within six months of referral to the last of them (four months in the non-compliance cases under Art. 4(7) of the Regulation and Art. 59(1)(c) / 62(1)(f) of Directive 2019/944) or they jointly request a decision. The regulators can jointly ask for up to six more months, except in those non-compliance cases. For codes and guidelines adopted as delegated acts after 4 July 2019, ACER is competent only on a voluntary basis, on the request of at least 60% of the competent regulators (or either one if only two are involved), so the six-month fallback does not apply automatically to delegated-act codes such as the NC DR.
• Art. 2 (acts ACER can adopt): ACER can issue opinions and recommendations and individual decisions in the areas the regulation lists, including bidding-zone reviews (Art. 5(7)).

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