National Grid Electricity Distribution are currently procuring Low Voltage Sustain Flexibility for Winter 2024/2025 through the Piclo platform.
The timetable for this procurement is below;
15th Jan 2024 – Proposed CMZs published
15th Jan 2024 – Sustain Trade Response Window open
23rd Feb 2024 – Sustain Trade Response Window closed
22nd Mar 2024 – Sustain Trades awarded
For any other information or queries, please contact NG’s Flexible Power Team at: nged.flexiblepower@nationalgrid.co.uk
Current and future Procurement Opportunities (Including; Where, When and How Much);
Flexibility – Requirements - Dataset - National Grid's Connected Data Portal
Tools and Documents (Including; Procurement and Engagement Timetable and Guidance Documents)
Piclo has partnered with National Grid Electricity Distribution (NGED) to run NGED's new week-ahead flexibility competitions. The infographic below shows the cadence of events per competition.
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Visible: Competition is visible on Piclo and pre-qualification checks are made against eligible assets.
Bidding Window: Week ahead competition is now open for bidding using all qualified assets. Bidding is open from 00:00 Wednesday until 12:00 Tuesday.
Decision: NGED will endeavour to decision bids by Thursday after bidding closes. Notifications of bid results and resultant contractual obligations will be shortly after.
Service Week: Users are expected to provide service delivery in accordance with the dispatch signals received. Depending on the competition type these dispatches will be scheduled or dynamic in nature.
Note: Company qualification and asset upload are not limited to a timeframe, they can be completed at any time.
For any other information or queries, please contact NG’s Flexible Power Team at: nged.flexiblepower@nationalgrid.co.uk
What will Piclo do with my data?:
For all NGED competitions Piclo will be facilitating an integration with their Market Gateway platform. This will allow Piclo users to take part in NGED’s competitions without having to create or maintain accounts across multiple platforms.
This means we will require your consent to create a Market Gateway account and upload asset data on your behalf. This consent question can be found within NGED’s company qualification form.
What if I already have a Market Gateway account?:
If you already have a Market Gateway account it will not be changed in any way. If any contractual obligations are outstanding within your previous account they can still be managed through Market Gateway as usual.
The new account Piclo will create can then be used for any future trading you wish to undertake through Piclo. We will ensure the correct asset and metering data is migrated to the relevant NGED platforms when applicable.
When will week-ahead competitions be run?:
These competitions will be run weekly in accordance with NGED’s monthly flexibility requirements. Only constraint areas that have flexibility requirements within the corresponding service month will be open for trading.
What is the difference between the Dynamic and Secure products?:
Competitions with the Dynamic product type may or not be dispatched as per the contractual obligations you have been awarded, depending on the network needs at the time. You should be available for the times you have been obligated in case you receive a dispatch instruction.
Competitions with the Secure product type are always dispatched as per the contractual obligations you have been awarded, unless you are told otherwise. You should expect to be dispatched during your awarded delivery windows.
For both product types a start dispatch instruction will be sent 15 minutes prior to the start of delivery. A corresponding stop dispatch instruction will be sent when delivery is expected to cease.
Do week-ahead competitions include availability payments?:
Although these competitions will appear as “Utilisation only” within Piclo they are in fact “Utilisation & Availability” competitions. Therefore any contractual obligations awarded will include availability service adherence and payments. Details on how availability pricing will be determined can be found in the bidding guidance section below.
When can I expect to see week-ahead competitions on Piclo?:
Week-ahead competitions will be visible on the platform two weeks before the service delivery week. Please be aware this may mean the service delivery week is in the following month. The competition name (e.g. W/C 06/05/2024 - Dynamic - Feeder Road to Bedminster and Bower Ashton circuit) will state:
What type of assets can qualify?:
NGED will only qualify operational assets intending to take part in their upcoming competitions. Operational assets can be uploaded to Piclo using the “Operational & Developing Assets” tab in the asset upload template.
Please do not upload any planned assets intended to participate in NGED’s competitions using the “Planned Assets'' tab in the asset upload template, as these will not be eligible for qualification.
What asset data is required?:
To ensure your asset(s) can be qualified for NGED’s competitions please ensure the following data points are uploaded in to Piclo (these data points are currently marked as “optional” in the asset upload template):
These data points can be added when uploading new asset(s) or by editing already uploaded assets. This can be done by going to Manage > Assets, downloading your existing assets, adding the relevant data points and then re-uploading them.
What service response time is required?:
Obligated groups of assets are expected to be able to deliver 15 minutes after a start dispatch instruction has been received. By submitting a bid we will assume this requirement can be adhered to. This response time requirement is especially important if:
How will the Piclo Max service fee impact my bid?:
The FSP uses the Piclo platform as normal to identify opportunities and submit bids. Upon bidding, Piclo adds the service fee (in this case 2.5%) to the FSP bid for both availability and utilisation as applicable, before submitting the total bid price to the DSO for evaluation alongside other bids received. Full details can be found here.
Are NGED competitions pay as clear or pay as bid?:
NGED competitions operate as pay as clear market. In a pay as clear market, the DSO evaluates all bids received and the participants are all awarded the highest price procured; the cleared price.
Do NGED competitions have a utilisation ceiling price?:
Each NGED constraint management zone has a specific ceiling price. Bids over this price will be classed as uneconomic and will not be accepted. Please be aware that the Max service fee will increase your submitted bid price, so please ensure this uplift will not lead to a breach of the zone ceiling price. A CSV containing the 2024 ceiling price for each HV zone can be found here.
How is availability pricing calculated?:
For NGED competitions you will not need to enter availability bids. NGED will determine your availability pricing based upon the cleared utilisation price:
What bidding rules do I have to adhere to?:
For NGED’s competitions the following bidding rules must be followed. Please be aware, these rules will not be validated within the Piclo UI, so please ensure they have been adhered to before submitting your bids.
If you have already submitted a bid and would like to edit it you can by going to Manage > Bids > Edit active bids before the bidding window closes. We will not send your bids to NGED for consideration if the two bidding rules above are not adhered to.
In a pay as clear market, the DSO evaluates all bids received and the participants are all awarded the highest price procured; the cleared price.
Each FSP bid will therefore result in one of three outcomes:
Once bid results have been announced you will receive an email showing how many of your bids have been accepted or rejected. These numbers may seem higher than expected because we are counting total bid prices and accepted cleared prices as separate bids.
You can download your bid results file by going to Manage > Bids > Bid results.
Non-compliant bid outcome:
Rejected total bid outcome:
Accepted cleared price outcome:
For asset groups consisting of domestic assets NGED will assume a minimum runtime of 30 mins and a maximum runtime of 400 mins.
For asset groups consisting of commercial and industrial assets NGED will assume a minimum runtime of 30 mins and a maximum runtime of 1440 mins (24hrs).
Please contact customer success if you cannot adhere to the above runtimes.
A start dispatch instruction email is sent up to 15 minutes before the required start time to allow for asset ramp up.
A corresponding stop dispatch instruction email is sent at the required stop time.
Start and stop dispatch instruction emails include the NGED constraint area name where the service is required. Full details on the capacity required can be found within your contractual obligations file.
All metering data for a specific delivery month must be uploaded by the 14th calendar day of the following month. This includes half hourly metering data for:
Invoices will be shared by the 17th of each month for services delivered in the previous month. Please contact customer success if you have any questions or would like to raise a dispute.