Balancing

Not applicable.

Information not publicly available.

Balancing is done by ELIA in accordance with the Federal, Flemish and Walloon technical regulations. ELIA assumes the balancing responsibility for the Belgian territory. In doing so, it cooperates with so-called "access responsible parties" (ARPs). The ARP is responsible for maintaining a balance within its own individual balance area. The perimeter of an ARP consists of injection and off-take points for which they were appointed ARP.

Commission Regulation (EU) 2017/2195 establishing a guideline on electricity balancing applies directly to the BE energy market.

The imbalance tariffs, charged to ARPs, are set by the regulatory authority (CREG) on the basis of a proposal by the transmission system operator for electricity (ELIA). In principle, the tariffs are set every four years.

Not applicable.

The physical delivery of the electricity is controlled by the Operator of the National Electricity System (ONS), who centralizes the dispatch of the power plants.

The contractual/financial portion is handled by Chamber of Electricity Commercialization (CCEE), who is responsible for the financial balance of the power system. CCEE is also responsible for the short-term or spot market and for the calculation of the spot price.

All corporate PPAs must be registered with CCEE. If generators fail to provide the amount of power contracted or if consumers fail to contract all their consumption, the difference between the actual and the contracted electricity production/consumption will be subject to the spot price. Also, generators and consumers may be penalized by CCEE for their shortfall. 

The Independent Coordinator of the National Electric System is the balancing authority. Usually the generator and offtaker do not undertake balancing. 

The authority in charge of balancing the system in the day-ahead spot market is the system operator XM S.A. E.S.P., pursuant to Resolution 24 of 1995 (The Wholesale Energy Market Code). All generators are responsible for primary reserve and shall contribute with AGC services and it becomes a regulatory cost for such units that are uncapable to adjust output in response to change in load. Besides AGC there is no other regulation in place imposing Balancing Responsible Party obligation.

Balancing is performed by the users of the network.

On the Egyptian electrical grid, the power injected must be equal to the power withdrawn at each moment. The balancing authority in Egypt is EETC, the operator of the public electricity transmission network, which is responsible for the physical balance of the grid in real time. 

That said, EETC financially compensates for the differences observed related to the injections and withdrawals within its balance perimeter from the electrical network.

Not applicable.

The Finnish TSO (Fingrid Oyj) is the authority responsible for maintaining a continuous power balance in Finland and for the nation-wide imbalance settlement.

In accordance with the Finnish legislation, each party operating in the electricity market is obliged to maintain a continuous power balance between its electricity production, procurement, consumption, and sales. In practice, an electricity market party cannot do this by itself, which is why it must have an open supplier which balances the power balance of the party. A party whose open supplier is Fingrid is referred to as a balance responsible party. The open delivery between Fingrid and a balance responsible party is agreed through a balance agreement. The balance responsible party must have a valid imbalance settlement agreement with eSett Oy, being the company referred to in the Finnish Electricity Market Act as the entity through which Fingrid has organised the functions related to the management of nation-wide imbalance settlement.

In practice, in the PPA structure there must be a company that is legally responsible for balancing the electricity that is produced or consumed at the input and output points of the grid. The PPA structure will also usually include an agreement on balancing services agreement with a balance responsible party.

The party responsible for balancing may be either the producer, the offtaker or a third party and the party best placed to do so will vary on a case-by-case basis. Usually in physical PPAs the parties have the same balancing responsible party, and this is a prerequisite in pay-as-produced PPAs. In financial PPAs the parties always have different balancing responsible parties.

On the French electrical grid, the power injected must be equal to the power withdrawn at each moment. The balance authority in France is RTE (Réseau Transport Electricité), the operator of the public electricity transportation network, which is responsible for the physical balance of the grid on real time. 

A balance responsible entity is a market operator which financially compensates for the differences observed a posteriori between injections and withdrawals within its balance perimeter from the electrical network. In order to become a balance responsible entity, operators have to comply with RTE specific regulations and execute with RTE a participation agreement as a balance responsible entity. 

The contractual commitment with RTE obliges the balance responsible entities to ensure the adequacy between the injected and withdrawn power within their balance perimeter from the electrical network. If an imbalance is discovered, it shall be invoiced either to RTE or to the balance responsible entity, depending on the positive or negative difference between the injections and withdrawals. 

It is more common for generators to become a balance responsible entity.

Relevant balancing groups are held and administered by the competent German electricity TSOs on the basis of contractual agreements with the balancing responsible parties.

In the German market, generators commonly assign balancing activities to third parties, such as direct marketing companies (Direktvermarktungsunternehmer) who will then often also act as balancing responsible party towards the TSO. However, the relevant balancing responsible party could potentially also be the generator or the offtaker themselves.

In the applicable balancing responsibility scheme, the model of Central Dispatch per unit is adopted by ADMIE (IPTO S.A.) through the execution of the unified scheduling process. The party responsible for balancing may be either the producer, the offtaker or a third party and the appropriate party to undertake balancing will vary on a case-by-case basis.

Ireland operates a central dispatch model and the system is balanced by EirGrid Plc as Irish TSO. The Balancing Market determines the imbalance settlement price for settlement of the TSO’s balancing actions and any uninstructed deviations from a participant’s notified ex ante position. The balancing market is operated by the SEMO in accordance with the Trading and Settlement Code.

As mentioned above, all generators registered in the SEM are balance responsible and must register in the BM. However, where a generator appoints an intermediary, that intermediary assumes balance responsibility on the generator’s behalf. Other arrangements such as settlement reallocation agreements may also be used to transfer the financial consequences of balancing risk to third parties who are better placed to manage it. Structuring these arrangements is a core part of the development of any Irish cPPA.

The Italian balancing authority is Terna S.p.A., the Italian transmission system operator.

Generator and off-taker typically undertake balancing through a trader.

Kenya’s national transmission network is owned and operated by two utilities, i.e. Kenya Electricity Transmission Company Limited (KETRACO), and KPLC. KETRACO independently owns the majority of the lines, and particularly the high voltage lines, while KPLC has historical ownership of several lower voltage lines. 

KPLC is currently the main distributor and retailer such that it accepts responsibility for balancing supply and demand needs and ensuring the power is safely transmitted through the network to its end users.  Balancing in Kenya is carried out in accordance with the Kenya Electricity Grid Code, and it follows that responsibility for balancing the system is allocated to the offtaker in a traditional PPA.

CENACE is not an authority, it is just the operator. The authority is the CRE. The generator and offtaker do not take balancing themselves.

The national electricity transport grid operator is the balancing authority. 

Draft Law No. 40-19 also requires the contribution by the generators to the stability of the grid by paying a tariff determined by the National Electricity Regulation Authority. In this regard, Draft Law No. 40-19 introduces the term "system services" consisting of a set of services enabling the national electricity transport grid operator to maintain frequency, voltage and cross-border trade with other countries. System services also allow the national electricity transport grid operator to manage the intermittent nature of renewable energy sources connected to the grid.

Apart from being the sole off-taker of the nationally produced electricity, EDM is the manager of the national electricity transportation grid, whose competencies include the management of the system services required for the balance between production and consumption. 

The generator and the off-taker do not typically undertake balancing themselves.  Despite its dual capacity, EDM adopted an organic structure that clearly separates its role of off-taker from that of manager of the national electricity transportation grid.

TenneT, the national Grid Operator is the balancing authority. Balance responsible parties (BRPs) are responsible for maintaining supply and demand on the energy market within their own portfolio.

The generator is the BRP, but it is allowed to transfer this responsibility to a service provider in case of a sleeved cPPA.

Not applicable.

Statnett is the balancing authority and participants in the power market must either be responsible for their own balancing or have an agreement with a balancing party to undertake the balancing requirement. The party responsible for balancing may be either the producer, the offtaker or a third party and the party best placed to do so will vary on a case-by-case basis. Usually in physical PPAs the parties have the same balancing responsible party, and this is a prerequisite in pay-as-produced PPAs. In synthetic PPAs the parties always have different balancing responsible parties.

The generator typically undertake a balancing scheme.

In Poland, the BRP (Podmiot Odpowidzialny za Bilansowanie) is an entity operating on the balancing market run by TSO (which is responsible for matching the supply and demand in the power network) and makes settlements with TSO for any imbalances.

The Global System Management activity is carried out by the transmission system operator (TSO), pursuant to balancing schemes foreseen and described in the Procedures Handbook for the Global Management of the Electric System (Manual de Procedimentos da Gestão Global do Sistema), where safety and operational criteria for the operation of the National Electricity System and rules for the operation of balancing markets are found.

Not applicable.

Under CPPAs in South Africa, our experience is that the generator and offtaker do not typically undertake balancing themselves.

Eskom is the system operator and is the legal entity responsible for short-term reliability of the interconnected power system. As part of its function, it controls and operates the transmission system and dispatches generation (or balances the supply and demand) in real time. As such, this really only applies where there is wheeling of energy.

Balancing is performed by Red Eléctrica de España (REE) in accordance with Operating Procedure 1.5 (Establishment of the reserve for frequency-power regulation of July 13, 2006). REE organizes and coordinates a market in which power plants compete to offer the operation reserve service (secondary reserve) and an additional tertiary reserve market. Secondary regulation is an optional ancillary service whose purpose is to maintain the generation-demand balance, correcting automatically deviations with respect to the anticipated power exchange schedule of the “Spain” Control Block, and the system frequency deviations. Tertiary regulation is an optional ancillary service that, if subscribed to, is accompanied by the obligation to bid, and is managed and remunerated by means of market mechanisms. Its purpose is to resolve the deviations between generation and consumption and the restoration of the secondary control band reserve used.

The seller may appoint a market representation agent, which may also be the Balancing Responsible Party, entering into a Market Representation Services Agreement.

Royal Decree Law 17/2022 has recently introduced an active demand response balancing system applicable when manual activated balancing systems are not sufficient to supply balance energy, which is assigned through an auction system.

As noted above, Svenska Kraftnät is the authority responsible for making sure that the transmission system in Sweden is safe, environmentally sound and cost-effective.

According to Swedish legislation, there must be a company that is legally responsible for balancing the electricity that is produced or consumed at the input and output points of the grid. Therefore a PPA structure will usually include a balancing services agreement with a balancing responsible party who takes on the responsibility for ensuring that there is a balance between the electricity being produced and consumed. In order for a company to provide the balancing responsibility services, it must have a balancing services contract with Svenska Kraftnät. There is a very competitive market for providing these services.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

No.

As noted above, balancing is done by Elexon in accordance with industry code BSC. The BSC sets out that individual generation and demand assets (BM Units) may balance themselves or act through a "Lead Party". It leaves open whether a Lead Party or BM Unit must be a generator or supplier, and as such it would be prudent to expressly designate the function in the cPPA. Regulation (EU) 2017/2195 establishing a guideline on electricity balancing applies directly to the GB energy market, however, this is largely implemented in the BSC.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.