Balancing market manipulation: E-Control fines a BSP’s managing director personally for bids at -15,000 €/MWh, as they misled the market rather than merely guarding against non-performance.
On 13.11.2026 ACER announced that the Austrian regulator E-Control has found the conduct of a balancing service provider (BSP) in the aFRR market to constitute market manipulation.
- Facts. In winter 2024 the BSP was awarded capacity in APG’s aFRR tender and was required to submit energy bids. The reserve resources it had demonstrated during prequalification were not actually available. To avoid activation, the BSP placed negative balancing energy bids at the price limit of -15,000 €/MWh.
- Consequence. Some of the bids were nevertheless activated. Under the pay-as-cleared model, they set the marginal price in several delivery periods, and APG’s aFRR costs for the day rose to around €5 million. These costs were ultimately borne by network users.
- Legal assessment. The bids were not genuine. They sent false signals to the market, set the price at an artificial level once activated, and created the impression that the BSP was meeting the commitments it had made during prequalification (Article 5 of REMIT, Regulation (EU) No 1227/2011).
- Sanction. A fine of €150,000 was imposed on the managing director personally. The BSP is jointly liable and must repay the gains from the manipulation, around €200,000.
What this means in practice. A price bid used to “block” a participant’s own activation, rather than to sell or buy energy, may be treated as manipulation even if the aim was to avoid a non-performance penalty. The case also shows that the managing director may be held personally liable, not just the company.
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