Estonia fines Futugrid €16,000 over a non-genuine balancing bid in its first REMIT case

Serguey Asael Shinder15 October 2026, 06:471 min read

The EU energy regulators' agency ACER reported on 14 October 2026 that the Estonian Competition Authority (Konkurentsiamet) has fined Futugrid Technologies OÜ €16,000 for manipulating the balancing energy market. It is the Authority's first decision on market manipulation under REMIT (Article 5), and it remains subject to appeal.

The obligation. On 31 March 2025 Futugrid offered capacity on the Baltic balancing capacity market, where providers are paid to stay available for the later balancing energy market. Its offer was accepted, which obliged it to submit a matching energy bid for delivery on 1 April 2025.

The bid. To meet that obligation Futugrid bid 1 MW of downward balancing energy — used when the grid has a surplus — in manual Frequency Restoration Reserve (mFRR), for the market time unit 12:00–12:15 on 1 April. It set the price at -9,999 €/MWh with the aim of not being activated. The bid was activated anyway and directly set the marginal balancing price for that period.

The finding. The Authority concluded the bid was not genuine: Futugrid priced it to avoid activation while still formally meeting its obligation. According to ACER, the bid sent a misleading signal to the market and directly influenced price formation, which constitutes market manipulation in breach of REMIT. REMIT prohibits sending false or misleading signals in order to protect the integrity and transparency of EU wholesale energy markets.

ACER points to the Authority's own press release in Estonian and to its table of REMIT sanction decisions adopted by national regulators.

Source: ACER, "REMIT breach: Estonian Competition Authority fines Futugrid for manipulating the electricity market" — https://www.acer.europa.eu/news/remit-breach-estonian-competition-authority-fines-futugrid-manipulating-electricity-market