Balancing services
New Balancing Reserve service goes live to reduce balancing…
14 Mar 2024 - 2 minute read
The first Balancing Reserve (BR) auction for day ahead capacity ran successfully on our Enduring…
Enhancing the use of storage assets in our balancing activities
Balancing services
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16 Feb 2024 - 2 minute read
We recognise how important the impacts of our decision and system changes have on the Storage industry as we transition to net zero and want to ensure we do this in a collaborative way.
On 12 February, we were joined by over 150 stakeholders from across the energy industry at our ‘Enhancing Energy Storage in the Balancing Mechanism’ webinar where we highlighted our progress to date on enhancing the use of storage assets in our balancing activities and the future deliverables still come.
How we’re enhancing storage assets in our balancing activities
In December, we launched release one of the Open Balancing Platform (OBP), which uses the Bulk Dispatch Optimiser (BDO). The BDO automates the aggregation of multiple storage assets to support improved use of them in the Balancing Mechanism. Previously, the control room had to manually instruct each action for each individual asset. Using BDO, our control room engineers can send hundreds of instructions to smaller Balancing Mechanism Units (BMUs) and battery storage sites at the press of a single button. This reduces manual process in the control room and the time taken to instruct BMUs when needed, resulting in increased value for consumers by improving the optimisation of network balancing.
We’ve also made some system enhancements to our existing tools, to enhance dispatching performance and enable policy changes in our operations.
What’s next?
In March, you can hear the output of the independent LCP Delta analysis and the new Balancing Reserve service launching.
In spring 2024, Fast Dispatch launches to allow for quicker bulk dispatch, specifically targeting assets that are used for fast frequency correction.
In summer 2024, we’re introducing Quick Reserve – a new product aimed primarily at reacting to pre-fault disturbances to restore the energy imbalance quickly and return frequency close to 50.0Hz.
In Winter 2024, the new Energy Storage parameters will be in place, as agreed through the GC0166 working group.
Get involved
Share your feedback on imminent changes we can make to extend the length of our dispatch instructions up to 30 minutes ahead of the outcome of GC0166 to allow energy storage assets to be instructed for longer.
A timeline of future engagement opportunities was presented at the webinar, as we look to continue this collaboration and conversation.
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