Eggborough has signed a contract to supply 775MW of power in National Grid’s Supplemental Balancing Reserve for the winter of 2016/17 following a  December auction (see table below).

As reported in New Power (January 2016 issue, subscribers login to read), prices in National Grid’s Supplemental Balancing Reserve (SBR) have more than doubled for 2016/17 and are nearly twice Capacity Market levels.

The system operator (SO) completed an auction in December calling forward plant that is “outside the market” to make 3.8GW of capacity available for the winter of 2016/17. For 2016/17, the SO contracted 3,577MW and paid £34.21/kW. For 2015/16 it paid £12.94/kW for 2.5GW, and for 2014/15 it paid £17.80/kW for 600MW of capability.
The SBR, initially planned to cover only this winter and last, aims to ensure the GB system is above the three-hour loss of load expectation (LOLE) set by government. National Grid also expects to use the measure in 2017/18.
The SO has not yet tendered for Demand Side Balancing Reserve (DSBR) for 2016/17. For 2015/16 it contracted 112MW of DSBR, at a price of £15.17/kW, compared with 65MW in 2014/15 at £26.15/kW.

Initial results from December’s auction: