The GB electricity system operator (ESO) has launched the first stage of its new Open Balancing Platform.
This first stage of the Open Balancing Platform will mean control room engineers who have to call on power assets to help balance demand and supply can send instructions to many small units, including batteries, at the press of a button. That means the operators can call on smaller units as easily as they do large power stations, which will ultimately save costs and carbon emissions by unlocking new levels of precision for the control room operators and enabling them to call more easily on low-cost, low-carbon options.
This new system will enable ESO control room engineers to choose options from a pre-selected and optimised list of units to meet a network requirement. This will greatly reduce the time taken to instruct balancing mechanism units and reduce the number of manual instructions required from the control room. This will drive increased value for consumers by better optimising network balancing, speeding it up and reducing costs.
Future stages of the Open Balancing Platform will be delivered across 2024 and 2025. These will bring in a wider range of technologies and use them to meet other system needs such as response and reserve. These are currently served from the Ancillary Services Dispatch Platform but they will move to the new Open Balancing Platform.
By 2027 the Open Balancing Platform will grow to replace both the existing Balancing Mechanism (the system used to balance supply and demand second by second) and the Ancillary Services Dispatch Platform (the system used to procure the ESO’s operational reserves and contingency resources).
Craig Dyke, Director of System Operations, ESO, said: “The Open Balancing Platform is critical to delivering the balancing system we need to meet net-zero. Further diversification of generation assets, both in technologies and size require that we deliver more flexible solutions to increase efficiencies and competition, to support the delivery of our zero carbon ambition and to create savings for consumers.”
“By enabling transformation in our balancing capabilities, the ESO can continue to deliver world class reliability and security, both now and in the future.”