31JUL

ACER issues first EU-wide cost dataset

1 min read

09:44UTC

ACER released the first EU-wide dataset of capex and opex parameters for generation and flexibility technologies on 30 July, covering member states on a common basis.

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EconomicDeveloping

Key takeaway

A common EU cost dataset makes rival system models comparable for the first time.

ACER, the EU Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators, published the first EU-wide dataset on investment costs for generation and flexibility technologies on Thursday 30 July, covering capital and operating cost parameters across member states ¹.

Long-term electricity system modelling, the exercise that decides how much storage, how much gas and how much interconnection a country plans for, runs on cost assumptions for each technology. Those assumptions have come from consultancies, national ministries and technology vendors on incompatible bases, which is why two credible studies of the same system can disagree on the cheapest build-out and neither can be checked. Germany's StromVKG capacity auction, which opened on 21 July , is exactly the kind of procurement whose value depends on a cost benchmark nobody could previously cite. ACER's dataset does not settle those arguments. It moves them from the inputs to the method, where they can be examined.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

ACER is the EU agency that coordinates national energy regulators. On 30 July it published the bloc's first shared dataset of how much it actually costs to build and run different types of power generation and grid flexibility technologies across member states. Having one common set of numbers, rather than each country using its own estimates, should make it easier to compare whether a given country's support scheme for new power plants is offering a fair price.

What could happen next?

Opportunity
A shared EU cost dataset could let regulators and market participants benchmark national capacity auction terms, including Germany's StromVKG bid ceiling, against a common reference for the first time.

Sources:ACER

Mentions:ACER →StromVKG →Germany →

First Reported In

Update #31 · Caverns restart, 21 points short of November

ACER· 31 Jul 2026

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Different Perspectives

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