CRE approves RTE's revised NEBCO market rules: new capacity-mechanism-linked payment formulas, extended panel-method learning period, delayed ELD rollout, and temporary reliability-indicator derogation

CRE Deliberation n°2026-211 (21 Oct 2026) approves RTE's updated general provisions (chapter 0) of the NEBCO market rules: (1) reformed seller payment (barème) formulas for metered ('télérelevé') sites to reflect the new capacity mechanism's cross-calendar-year delivery periods, moving from annual to biannual barème updates (1 Jan-30 Sep and 1 Oct-31 Dec), effective 1 November 2026; (2) extension of the 'panel method' learning period to include post-activation timesteps; (3) postponement of the deadline for rolling out the panel method to non-Enedis distribution network (ELD) sites from 1 July 2026 to 1 November 2027, due to IT development delays at Enedis and the ORE agency; and (4) a temporary derogation excluding September-December 2025 panel-method results from the 2027 and 2028 reliability indicator calculations for affected demand-response (effacement) operators.

These rules govern the financial settlement between demand-response (effacement) operators/balancing actors and electricity suppliers under France's NEBCO framework, and the reliability indicator that caps an operator's valorizable modulation capacity. Adapting payment formulas to the new capacity mechanism, extending methodological learning periods, and granting indicator relief directly affects the economics and risk profile of demand-side flexibility providers active in energy markets and the balancing mechanism (mécanisme d'ajustement), and signals RTE/CRE's approach to managing transitional friction from the September 2025 panel-method introduction.

This is a technical but consequential piece of market design plumbing connecting two reforms: the end of ARENH and the launch of France's new capacity mechanism. By re-anchoring the télérelevé seller payment barème to the new capacity mechanism's delivery periods (now straddling two calendar years) and shifting to biannual updates timed around the PL-1 capacity auctions (early July), CRE is ensuring the demand-response compensation regime does not lag institutional changes upstream. Separately, the panel method (Enedis' statistical settlement methodology for profiled effacement entities, introduced September 2025) is being given more runway: both via an extended learning period (improving reference-curve reliability) and via explicit relief from reliability-indicator penalties for the method's first four months of operation, acknowledging it took time for operators to master. The non-Enedis ELD rollout delay (now 16 months later than originally scheduled) reflects real IT-development bottlenecks across Enedis, other DNOs and the ORE data agency, illustrating how data-pipeline dependencies can bottleneck flexibility-market methodology expansion even when policy intent is fixed. CRE explicitly declined to extend the indicator derogation into 2026 or to make structural changes to the profiled-site barème calculation despite stakeholder requests (e.g., full supplier risk/cost pass-through, dynamic-tariff treatment), signaling a conservative, incremental posture pending more developed retail offer diversification.

French Code de l'énergie Articles L.271-1 to L.271-4, R.271-1 to R.271-9, L.134-1(9°), L.321-15-1; CRE Deliberation n°2026-211 of 21 October 2026, building on CRE Deliberation n°2025-275 (17 Dec 2025) and n°2025-199 (23 Jul 2025)

Entry into force of revised RTE market rules (chapter 0), including new télérelevé barème formulas · 1 Nov 2026

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