ESO responds to ESN call for Balancing Mechanism reforms

Responding to the ESN's open letter calling for reforms to the Balancing Mechanism the ESO has provided the following comment and a letter of response:

“We are committed to running the power system with zero carbon emissions by 2025 and recognise the importance of low carbon technologies in achieving this goal.

“Achieving this level of ambition at pace inevitably presents a number of operational challenges which we are solving through our Markets Roadmap and as part of a suite of reforms across the ESO. These changes have already seen the use of battery storage change dramatically in the Balancing Mechanism, with the volumes being dispatched significantly increasing over the past year.

“We agree that we need to continue to do more to ensure both that we receive accurate and timely information about these assets and that we are able to use the assets to their full potential. We greatly value the engagement with the ESN and its members and will continue to work collaboratively with them and the wider power sector to deliver this critical ambition.”

NOTES:

The ESO has already taken the following actions to support batteries entering the market:

• Developed a new suite of frequency response markets that are currently only accessed by battery storage; 
• Run battery trials to improve how we dispatch these assets; and 
• We have taken the decision to update legacy dispatch tools that have already started to deliver a positive change in storage dispatch. 
• We have made additional, incremental changes to our legacy dispatch systems to improve dispatch options in the control room prior to this December 2023 release.
• To further help with the utilisation of battery assets in the BM. We have prioritised the first release of the new Open Balancing Platform, due to be released from December 2023

ESN open letter (26 July)

ESO letter of response (27 July)