Balancing Service Provider Model

Balancing Service Providers (BSP) are market participants which provide balancing energy or balancing capacity or both to the Transmission System Operator (TSO). BSPs, such as generators or demand facilities, balance out unforeseen fluctuations in the electricity grid by increasing or reducing their power output as requested by the TSO. Each balancing energy trade from a BSP is assigned to a Balance Responsible Party.

The Nordic TSOs are gradually taking the new role into use or moving the invoicing of the BSPs to eSett on behalf of the TSOs. To get ready for this market change, eSett has initiated a project to provide these services.

The current agreed BSP model is described in the NBS Handbook in detailed. However, the market participants should note that the BSP model is under development in NBS Countries, and the model may develop further before it is taken into use in different NBS Countries. The Commissioning Plan below summaries the main principles of how BSP model and BSP invoicing is currently implemented at eSett.

The current implementation plan for business go live is following:

  • Finland: Fingrid will move the invoicing of mFRR energy market to eSett on 20.11.2023.
  • Sweden: Development of BSP model to meet the Swedish regulation requirements for BSPs, implementation during 2023-2024.
  • Denmark & Norway: Have not yet decided the business go live.

The Balancing Service Settlement Agreement has been published

eSett Oy has prepared a template for the Balancing Service Settlement Agreement together with Energinet (Denmark), Fingrid (Finland), Statnett (Norway), and Svenska kraftnät (Sweden). The template can be found on eSett’s web page.

Materials related to the BSP model

A commissioning plan has been prepared to help the market to identify the changes that are relevant for them.

BSP Model Commissioning Plan

eSett has also published example outbound messages to help in the testing of market participants’ IT systems.

Outbound dataflow examles

eSett has included the Balancing Service Provider (BSP) role into current NBS Handbook. Hopefully this will support market participants in the planning and implementation of the new BSP model.

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