After the 2024 electricity price spikes in Southeast Europe, ACER recommends measures to mitigate future periods of system stress in the region

In brief

ACER’s monitoring report examines the sustained electricity price spikes that hit Southeast Europe in summer 2024, after the European Commission asked the agency to assess how similar episodes could be prevented or mitigated. ACER found that the main driver was a shortage of flexible resources able to replace solar power in the evening during periods of high demand. The situation was worsened by limited cross-border capacity, including constraints linked to planned network maintenance, which reduced the region’s ability to import cheaper electricity from the rest of the EU.

Although prices in 2025 did not reach the same peaks as in summer 2024, ACER says the continuing price gap between Southeast and Central Europe points to deeper structural problems. The agency recommends faster deployment of grid-enhancing technologies, better regional coordination on outages and remedial actions, fuller implementation of EU market integration rules, accelerated interconnection projects and measures to unlock more system flexibility, including by removing barriers for smaller market participants and encouraging flexibility investments.

Source: ACER

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