NESO to launch new Quick Reserve service

NESO are proud to announce that phase one of the new Quick Reserve service will become operational from Tuesday 3rd December 2024. 

This new service is part of the suite of services being introduced by NESO to improve our existing response services and to support our 2025 ambition to be able to operate the electricity network with zero-carbon.

Quick Reserve is needed for frequency management when there is an imbalance between supply of energy and demand for energy. It will replace NESO’s existing Fast Reserve service and will be responsible for reacting to pre-fault disturbances to restore the energy imbalance quickly and return the frequency close to 50.0 Hz.

Phase 1 of the service will deliver greater efficiencies in supporting system balancing, potentially delivering consumer savings in the region of £29-£32 million each year. Delivery of the full service (Phase 2) will take place in Summer 2025. We are currently engaging with industry and Ofgem on the proposed enduring service & procurement design.

What now: 

Providers wishing to participate in Quick Reserve can now pre-qualify their assets through the Single Markets Platform (SMP) in readiness for service go live and they can also register to take part in a series of mock auctions. 

Quick Reserve, separated into Negative Quick Reserve (NQR) and Positive Quick Reserve (PQR) products to manage frequency in both directions, will be procured via a single simultaneous day ahead auction. These auctions will co-optimise Quick Reserve with the existing Dynamic Response products, with market welfare being maximised across all services. 

The live auction platform will open for Quick Reserve bids for the first time from 19th November 2024 with the first co-optimised auction taking place on 3rd December 2024 for service delivery starting 23:00 on 3rd December.

Quick Reserve