OBP: Flexitricity stats after 2 days

On Tuesday 12th December, the new Open Balancing Platform (OBP) went live in National Grid ESO ’s control room.

?The first stage of OBP’s release allows bulk dispatch of smaller Balancing Mechanism Units (<50MW BMUs) and battery storage assets, making the process of calling these units in the Balancing Mechanism much more efficient. NGESO has published a useful 10-minute demonstration of this new capability here: https://players.brightcove.net/867903724001/default_default/index.html?videoId=6342336994112

?So, what impact has OBP had on the number of calls (Bid/Offer Acceptances, or BOAs) that Flexitricity has received over its first two days?

Across 23 small BMUs and batteries, in two days since OBP’s launch we’ve had 120 BOAs, 305 separate instructions (instructions being extensions or variances to already-called BOAs) and over 100 hours of BM running. At an individual asset level, we’ve had some battery units seeing nearly 1.5-2 hours of dispatch and some gas peakers reaching 6-9 run hours on one day alone.

Our data analytics team will be quick to remind me that one swallow doesn’t make a summer or two days of OBP doesn’t put the skip rate debate to bed.

Indeed, whilst the number of BOAs over the last two days is 164% up (!) on our rolling two-month average, I can point to an individual day of 102 BOAs back in September (on a Saturday!), or a two-day period in November that was 193% up on that two-month average.

So to summarise: encouraging signs, with hopefully more to come. And thank goodness for automated dispatch and delivery.