imbalance prices

  • Energy storage and flexibility

    Imbalance prices rise for sixth consecutive month

    This week we delve into system imbalance pricing, and look at the latest movements from the Balancing Market (BM). The BM ultimately reflects the actions taken by the transmission system operator to keep the system balanced. These actions determine the Imbalance Settlement Price (ISP) for each of the half-hourly settlement...

  • Low carbon generation

    Imbalance price soars to 8-year high as RSP gets used

    Last night's (4 March 2020) imbalance prices reached >£2,000/MWh as National Grid was utilising Short-term Operating Reserve (STOR) generators during this period. Despite these generators requiring a much lower price to ramp up output (utilisation prices are typically less than £50MWh), they were priced in the Imbalance Pricing Mechanism at...

  • Commercial and market outlook

    Editor’s Pick | Ballad of lost load

    Tom Edwards, Senior Modeller at Cornwall Insight, discusses what published industry data tells us about the blackout of 9 August. This was originally published on 19 August 2019 in Energy Spectrum. The Balancing Mechanism Reporting Service (BMRS) is the primary channel for operational data on electricity balancing and settlement arrangements. Under...

  • Low carbon generation

    Black-out, what blackout? The curious case of unexciting imbalance prices on 9 August

    As a self-confessed imbalance pricing geek, one of my first questions as I stood stranded in St Pancras station on Friday evening 9 August, was: what was the imbalance price? And was it £6,000/MWh? Spoiler: it wasn’t, and it shouldn’t have been – but we might see imbalance prices of...

  • Energy storage and flexibility

    Imbalance prices turn negative for six straight hours

    Imbalance prices turned negative for 13 consecutive settlement periods on Sunday, as low electricity demand and high levels of wind output led the System Operator to reduce generation output from a variety of wind, combined cycle gas turbines (CCGT) and biomass power stations. The imbalance price dropped below zero in...