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TERRE

The Trans European Replacement Reserves Exchange (TERRE) project was the European implementation project for exchanging Replacement Reserves in line with the Electricity Balancing guideline (Article 19). The Electricity Balancing Guideline (hereinafter EBGL), which entered into force on December 18, 2017, provides the technical and operational framework and defines the market rules to govern the functioning of balancing markets. It sets out rules for the procurement of balancing capacity, the allocation of cross-zonal transmission capacity for cross-border trades, for the activation of balancing energy, and the financial settlement of balance responsible parties.

The LIBRA platform was implemented to meet the regulation’s requirements and went live in January 2020. RR TSOs, members of the TERRE project, benefited from the platform during its whole lifetime, until its end in December 2025. Operations in the platform were stopped due to the new Electricity Market Design Reform (EMDR), adopted on the 21st of May 2024, establishing a new Cross-Zonal Intraday Gate Closure Time 30 minutes before real-time, effective 1st of January 2026. After the end of operations, the platform was decommissioned, closing the project at the end of March 2026.

Project Introduction

In 2016, the TERRE project was approved by ENTSO-E as an Implementation Project and became the European platform for the exchange of balancing energy from replacement reserves. The project was closely monitored by the National Regulatory Authorities and ACER.

The Replacement Reserves Platform (RR Platform) enabled the exchange and optimised activation of a standard product for balancing energy as defined in the Replacement Reserve Implementation Framework (RRIF) approved by the relevant regulatory authorities on 15 January 2019. The platform serves the EU Target Model for the integration of the balancing markets.

The RR Platform was based on the LIBRA solution, a common IT system which supported the exchange of the balancing energy by pooling the available balancing energy bids and providing an optimised allocation of the bids to meet TSOs’ imbalance needs.

The RR platform (TERRE) became operational in January 2020. Since then, 6 TSOs gradually connected to the platform, with the latest connection having taken place in January 2021. The TERRE project was continuously working towards enabling stable operations and improving the optimisation algorithm, in order to better adjust it to the current market characteristics.

Another main contribution of the TERRE project was the cooperation with the MARI project and the Nordic LIBRA project. The goal was to identify synergies in the intended adaptations and make use of the lessons learned from the TERRE project and the RR platform operations for more recent projects.

Members

The TERRE project was initially created by 8 TSOs: CEPS (Czech Republic), National Grid ESO (Great Britain), PSE (Poland), Red Eléctrica (Spain), REN (Portugal), RTE (France), Swissgrid (Switzerland) and Terna (Italy).

In addition, 3 TSOs were TERRE project members: Amprion, Statnett and Svenskä Kraftnät. The term “project member” was intentionally distinguished from TERRE members. Project members joined the TERRE project for the sole purpose of participating in the development, operation and management of the IT solution (LIBRA software) and obtaining the intellectual property rights of the IT solution in order to make use of and continue to develop it as part of a regional project in the case of the Nordics TSO, or as part of the MARI project.

In April 2021, the TSO National Grid ESO (Great Britain) gave notice to the TERRE Steering Committee of their will to exit the TERRE project, as part of the decision on Brexit and in line with the provision included in the Cooperation Agreement.

In December 2024, TERRE members shared officially that operations in the LIBRA platform will have to be stopped on the 31st of December 2025, due to legal constraints. This decision was explained to stakeholders during the Annual Stakeholder Workshop organised by the ENTSO-e on the 11th of December 2024.

Because of this decision and in a coordinated manner with all TERRE TSOs, CEPS (Czech Republic) and Terna (Italy) decided to disconnect from the platform respectively at the end of June and the end of December 2024 and become Former Members of the project from the 1st of January 2025. PSE (Poland) decided not to connect to the platform and become a Former Member on the 1st of January 2025 as well.

In 2025, four TSOs were still connected to the platform. They all continued to benefit from the platform with numerous exchanges until their disconnections, which were organised as follows:

  • RTE and Swissgrid disconnected from the platform on the 17th of December 2025. They respectively participated in operations until the MTU from 9:00 to 10:00 and from 11:00 to 12:00 CET.
  • Red Electrica and REN disconnected from the platform on the 30th of December 2025. They both participated in operations until MTU from 9:00 to 10:00 CET.

Operations in the platform were stopped with the second wave of disconnections, on the 30th of December 2025 at 10:00.

Since the 1st of January 2026, all TSOs (except National Grid ESO) are considered as TERRE Former Members and are working all together on the closure of the TERRE project and the decommissioning of the LIBRA platform.

The project should definitely end in March 2026.

TERRE members (As of January 2026)
TERRE members (As of January 2026)

Stakeholder events

The stakeholders’ involvement and support are structural for the TERRE project and all European stakeholders are invited to participate to the workshops.

TERRE Project Online Stakeholder Workshop on 17 May 2024 (Webinar)

Stakeholder Workshop: RR process & optimisation on 16 March 2022 (Webinar)

stakeholder workshop on 26 June 2019 in Brussels

Stakeholder Workshop on All TSO proposals on activation purposes and pricing on 16 October 2018 at ENTSO-E premises

Stakeholder Workshop on balancing on 20 and 21 June 2018 at ENTSO-E premises

RR Implementation Framework open Stakeholder workshop on 19 March 2018 at ENTSO-E premises

Project TERRE open stakeholder meeting on 30 November and 1 December 2017 at ENTSO-E premises

Press Releases and Updates

Consultations

The TERRE project performed several public consultations:

Updates

KPIs reports

Contact

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