Energy shocks affect renewables too. Stakeholders must react fast yet stay within UK/EU competition law, even in times of crisis.

Published: 20 March 2026
Authors: Kiran Desai

Volatility is not a defence—conduct matters. UK and EU competition authorities acknowledge that genuine scarcity can drive price increases and volatility, but their focus is on how companies respond to such volatility. Making pricing decisions based solely on a firm’s own costs and risks is permitted. However, risk emerges when companies—sometimes inadvertently—begin coordinating, signalling, or aligning their behaviour, especially under a “crisis narrative”.

Renewable energy players must be wary of sharing commentary on market conditions, bidding strategies, or contracting approaches. Even well-meant efforts to “stabilise” the market risk being seen as attempts to influence competitors.

Where renewables face heightened risk. As energy systems decarbonise, competition issues increasingly relate to flexibility and system access rather than fuel supply. In practice:

• storage and balancing markets: Sharing information on expected availability, outage timing, or state-of-charge strategies between competitors may constitute unlawful information exchange.
• grid access and congestion: Discussions among developers about grid connection sequencing or curtailment responses can raise competition concerns if they impact rivalry.
• ancillary services and optimisation tools: Shared platforms and algorithmic bidding increase the risk of indirect coordination if data segregation and governance are inadequate.

Crisis-driven cooperation: possible, but tightly constrained. Market stress may prompt talks about cooperation, such as shared logistics or coordinated responses. While competition law doesn’t ban all collaboration, it must be lawful and follow three principles:

• necessity and proportionality: Limit cooperation to clearly defined operational issues and keep it temporary.
• no coordination on strategic variables: Avoid discussions on prices, output, bidding, capacity withholding, or contracting positions.
• safeguards: Use clean teams, data aggregation, or independent intermediaries when data sharing is unavoidable, with clear records and sunset clauses.

Arguments about “security of supply” or “system resilience” do not override competition rules for renewables.

Geopolitical shocks: tighten governance, not conversations. External shocks, such as geopolitical tensions, can quickly affect energy pricing and liquidity. Renewables businesses, often spanning multiple sectors, face increased risk of cross-portfolio spillovers. Informal exchanges between teams may stray into sensitive territory.

In summary, renewables are at the centre of the energy transition but must operate within markets still shaped by gas, imports, and geopolitics. Competition law remains strict during disruptions. The safest approach is to ensure that rapid, resilient responses always embed competition compliance, so actions remain lawful and defensible.