balancing

  • Business supply and services

    Balancing costs exceed £200mn for three consecutive months

    High underlying commodity and carbon costs haven’t only impacted costs in the wholesale market. From April 2021 to the end of October 2021, balancing costs on the electricity transmission system have totalled £1.29bn. This represents a £301.88mn (30.6%) increase in costs over the same period in 2020, where total costs...

  • 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 | Grand unveiling: Dynamic Containment goes live

    At 11pm on 1 October National Grid ESO debuted its new frequency response service, Dynamic Containment (DC). This is the first in a suite of new faster-acting response services, designed to address significant frequency deviations when they occur on the transmission system.   The roll-out of this new post-fault response...

  • Energy storage and flexibility

    Chart of the week | What’s in it for me? Household grid balancing

    The current dearth in energy demand and high renewable generation has brought the need for flexible consumption sharply into focus. Last weekend, Octopus Energy paid thousands of smart meter customers to use energy. Industry is now seriously looking at how households will be supported in their participation in demand side...

  • Energy storage and flexibility

    Australian Chart of the week | The more things change, the more they stay the same…

    This Chart of the week focuses on the comparatively small but important Frequency Control Ancillary Services (FCAS) in the NEM. FCAS in terms of total dollars is minuscule in comparison to the total energy bill. While the proportion may appear small, its function is key to maintaining a secure operating...