National Grid ESO launches Open Balancing Platform

National Grid Electricity System Operator (ESO) in the UK has launched the first stage of its new Open Balancing Platform to support the bulk dispatch of battery storage and small Balancing Mechanism Units.

The Open Balancing Platform is a real-time balancing capability set to replace the existing balancing systems and processes National Grid ESO currently uses.

Launched as part of the ESO’s wider Balancing Programme, this first stage is hoped by the UK’s ESO to unlock new levels of precision for the ESO control room, enabling Bulk Dispatch, a new tool that will allow control room engineers to send hundreds of instructions to smaller Balancing Mechanism Units and battery storage sites at the press of a button.

The 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 reduce the time taken to instruct balancing mechanism units and reduce the number of manual instructions required from the control room, increasing the optimisation of network balancing, speeding up the process and reducing costs.

The optimisation of control room instructions from the Open Balancing Platform will also enable technologies like battery storage to play a more active role in balancing the network.

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Future stages of the Open Balancing Platform will be delivered over 2024 and 2025 to incorporate a wider range of technologies into the Bulk Dispatch process, as well as transfer existing response and reserve services from the Ancillary Services Dispatch Platform 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) and the Ancillary Services Dispatch Platform (the system used to procure the ESO’s operational reserves and contingency resources).

Craig Dyke, the ESO’s director of System Operations, said in a release: “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.”

The announcement follows recently announced reform from National Grid in the UK towards grid connection processes.

On its transmission network, 19 battery energy storage projects worth around 10GW will be offered dates to plug in, averaging four years earlier than their current agreement, based on a new approach which removes the need for non-essential engineering works prior to connecting storage.

The new policy is part of National Grid’s connections reform initiative targeting transmission capacity, spearheaded by the ESO, which owns the contractual relationship with connecting projects.