On 7 February 2024, ACER has received the Transmission System Operators’ (TSOs’) proposal to amend:
Following this submission, ACER will assess if the amendments are in line with the Electricity Balancing Regulation and is consulting with its stakeholders to make an informed decision.
What is ACER consulting about?
In relation to the pricing methodology, the TSOs are proposing to:
- Reduce the technical price limits of the integrated balancing energy markets from 99,999 to 15,000 EUR/MWh. This implies that balance service providers will not be allowed to bid below -15,000 EUR/MWh or above 15,000 EUR/MWh after July 2026.
- Lower the transitional price limit (valid until July 2026) to 10,000 EUR/MWh. Similarly, during this transitional period, balance service providers will only be allowed to bid between the price range from -10,000 to 10,000 EUR/MWh.
- Use an alternative way to compute the prices from the PICASSO platform to better reflect the bids activated by the TSOs.
In terms of the aFRR implementation framework, the TSOs propose introducing the possibility of using an elastic demand. This would allow them to price a segment of their demand and therefore establish a threshold beyond which they are unwilling to activate balancing energy. This would improve the TSOs’ ability to manage the balance between cost efficiency and the need for maintaining high-quality frequency.
What are the next steps?
To inform its decision-making, ACER will:
- run a public consultation from 26 March until 23 April 2024;
- hold a webinar on 8 April 2024 to present and discuss the main elements of the consultation.
ACER will reach a decision by 7 August 2024.