balancing mechanism

  • Energy storage and flexibility

    Out with the old, in with the new: T-4 Capacity Market clears at record price

    On 21 February, the T-4 Capacity Market auction for Delivery Year 2026-27 cleared at a record high price of £63.00/kW/year, procuring 43,000.955MW of capacity. In this week’s 'Chart of the week', we explore the key takeaways from the auction.

  • Energy storage and flexibility

    Key highlights from our Balancing Services Forecast report

    In this week’s ‘Chart of the Week’, we will outline some of the key highlights from our latest report, to provide you with a flavour of the latest long-term trends for response and reserve.

  • Energy storage and flexibility

    Chart of the week | Wider Access: BM sees annual increase in smaller participants

    In recent years National Grid ESO’s Wider Access programme has rolled out several measures to support the entry of smaller and non-traditional participants into the Balancing Mechanism (BM). This 'Chart of the week' looks at the level of new entry into the BM over the past year. Specifically, it looks...

  • Energy storage and flexibility

    Chart of the week | New to the party: Recent changes in Balancing Mechanism activity

    The Balancing Mechanism (BM), one of National Grid Electricity System Operator’s key tools to balance supply and demand in real time, has experienced a notable increase in activity in 2020, especially in light of the heightened challenges that have come from COVID-19. In the BM parties submit bids and offers...

  • Energy storage and flexibility

    Chart of the week | Critical Link: Western HVDC & wind in the BM

    On 10 January, the Western Link HVDC suffered a fresh unplanned outage. This consequently prompted Ofgem to investigate National Grid Electricity Transmission and Scottish Power Transmission over the cable's delivery and operation. Coinciding with this outage was record-high levels of wind generation in Great Britain. This generation from transmission connected...

  • Energy storage and flexibility

    Chart of the week | Charging in: New BM entrants and Wider Access

    While National Grid ESO has been granted a derogation until 30 June 2020 to implement project TERRE; Wider Access, its project to increase accessibility to the Balancing Mechanism (BM), is still scheduled to go-live on 11 December 2019. In this Chart of the Week we analyse recent activity of aggregated units and...

  • Energy storage and flexibility

    Chart of the Week | Call on me: Scottish wind farms in the Balancing Mechanism

    While much of the attention in the Balancing Mechanism (BM) focusses on how flexible technologies such as gas, coal and, increasingly, batteries are being commercially utilised, less is often spoken about the role of wind. This week’s Chart of the Week provides detail on this recent trend and importantly who is being...