Balancing Reserve

Balancing Mechanism (BM) units which can provide a minimum contract capacity of 1MW or above will be eligible to participate in the Balancing Reserve market.

We expect successful BR contracted units to position themselves to offer headroom (capacity to allow the unit to increase output) and/or footroom (capacity which allows the unit to decrease output). Their position is expressed to the ESO via submission of some or all the following BM data parameters: 

• Maximum Export Limit (MEL)  
• Physical Notification (PN)  
• Stable Import Limit (SIL) 
• Stable Export Limit (SEL) 
• Maximum Import Limit (MIL) 

Definitions of these data parameters can be found in Appendix 1 of BC1 within the Grid Code.

• For Positive Balancing Reserve service (provision of headroom), the unit must meet the below condition:
  • (MEL – PN) ≥ contracted capacity, or
  • (SIL – PN) ≥ contracted capacity
• For Negative Balancing Reserve service (provision of footroom), the unit must meet the below condition:
  • (PN – SEL) ≥ contracted capacity, or
  • (PN – MIL) ≥ contracted capacity

How to participate

To participate in the Balancing Reserve market, providers must be:

1. a BM Unit and;
2. have control and / or system telephony during all contracted windows​ (see Grid Code CC/ECC 6.5.2 for definitions of control and system telephony) and;
3. be capable of providing 1MW or more of reserve volume in line with the service design.

The requirement to be a BM Unit is driven by the need to submit dynamic parameters so that the control room has constant visibility of the true headroom of foot room available as well as the manual dispatch mechanism being through BM bids and offers.

Onboarding

To participate in Balancing Reserve your asset/unit will need to be registered in the Single Market Platform (SMP).

Further information regarding onboarding will be added here as it becomes available.

Getting paid

There are two types of payment for the BR service:

Availability payment

This payment is for being available to provide the service within the service window. A single clearing price (£/MW/hour) for Positive Balancing Reserve and Negative Balancing Reserve is set for each service window and is paid to all successfully contracted BR providers. Providers submit their availability prices for service windows they wish to offer volume into before the day ahead auction.

Utilisation payment

This payment is for delivering energy in line with the BR Service Terms when instructed by us. The instruction is made inn the form of a Bid Offer Acceptance (BOA) in the Balancing Mechanism. The utilisation payment includes the energy delivered in ramping up to and down from the BOA Volume in accordance with the BR Service Terms.

Settlements

Find links to explanations for payments, upcoming invoice dates and other frequently asked questions about settlements.

Find out about Settlements

We have updated updated our Q&A document, which now includes all your questions from the industry webinar on 16 November.

Download the Q&A document