National Grid ESO is looking for people to join an industry group exploring the barriers that stop small distributed generators and demand side response from joining the Balancing Mechanism, which NGESO uses to ensure supply is precisely matched to demand at the time of use.
The group was due to be formed by 13 April, but NGESO has kept membership open because it wants to have more members.
The system operator previously had limited ability to call on providers as small as 1MW or below – which would often give it cheaper and more flexible options while giving revenue to the providers – but it has recently upgraded control room systems to try to treat them on an equal basis. In addition new options such as ‘virtual lead parties’ have been introduced to provide a route to the market. But when NGESO)conducted an impact assessment to understand the barriers to entry to joining the BM it found a range of barriers still applied, including industry codes, control room, IT and settlement.
The assessment reinforced the view that calling on more small scale flexibility providers will help to enable zero carbon system operation. So NGESO has called on market participants to join the Issue Group to help assess the barriers to entry.
To find out more email [email protected]
Further reading
NGESO opens tender for non-BM reactive power
Distributed Resources Desk aims to bring small-scale power projects into electricity market