This week ARERA, the Italian energy regulator, announced that it intended to switch from its own national REMIT register to the Centralised European Register of Market Participants (CEREMP) managed by ACER (click here).
REMIT requires market participants engaged in wholesale energy trading to register with the national regulatory authority (NRA) of the Member State where they are established or resident. NRAs are required to transmit this registration data to ACER which it then uses to compile the CEREMP.
Based on a 2012 ACER Decision (click here), NRAs were given two implementation options for handling this data flow. Under Option A, the national registration process is carried out directly on ACER's CEREMP platform, and under Option B, countries could opt to build and maintain their own national registration system with a separate IT interface to transfer data to the CEREMP. ARERA opted for Option B back in 2015, developing its own National Register of Market Operators (“Registro nazionale degli operatori di mercato” or “Registro REMIT”) which integrated into its broader Operator Register (“Anagrafica Operatori”). Over time, most other EU countries that initially chose Option B have since migrated to Option A, leaving Italy and Romania as the only two countries still maintaining their own separate national registration systems rather than working directly through CEREMP. For Italy, this is set to change.
In its Resolution published this week, ARERA announced that it had decided to abandon Option B in favour of Option A. Later this year it plans to transition REMIT registrations to ACER's CEREMP register directly and retire its National Register of Market Operators (but notably retaining its Operator Register). Several factors contributed to this decision according to the Resolution, including the growing scope of REMIT registration requirements over time and the fact that most other EU countries retaining Option B had already migrated to Option A. This was further compounded by ACER's planned changes to CEREMP's data format and additional content necessitated by REMIT 2 which would require a costly rework of Italy's national Registro REMIT. The transition is expected to take effect on a date to be announced by ARERA on its website at some point in November or December 2026. This is timed to coincide with the anticipated go-live of ACER's own CEREMP changes.
From a market participant’s perspective, the Resolution describes several practical steps regarding the transition which in-scope firms should be aware of. Since the link between Italy's Operator Register and CEREMP will remain intact under the new arrangements, new applicants will still need to register with the Operator Register first. The registration ID from this process will be needed when signing up on CEREMP. For those firms already registered, ARERA’s Resolution confirms that CEREMP will already hold all the information submitted at the time of original registration, so there's no need to re-enter this information. Such firms will, however, be required to create CEREMP user accounts promptly before the effective date. ARERA will publish an updated Operating and User Manual along with step-by-step instructions for setting up CEREMP accounts before the effective date. This will be made available at least 30 days in advance to give firms time to prepare.
In scope firms are advised to calendarize this change and ensure that the necessary registration on CEREMP takes place in a timely manner.
