Analysis of aFRR and mFRR Balancing Capacity & Energy Demands and Bid Curves

Abstract

Balancing markets in Europe are under transformation from regulated balancing services procurement and uniform activation operated on national level towards fully market-based and Europe wide operation. The European institutions are pushing towards technology neutral markets where all players are participating on equal footing, including small distributed energy resources. The markets are developing in the direction of gate closure times closer to delivery, smaller bid and price resolutions etc. Such conditions are opening gates to new participants but are at the same time more complex to correctly position market bids. The first part of this paper will discuss current status of balancing services and their markets in Europe. The second part provides analysis of demands and bids for frequency restoration reserves in Germany as the leader in balancing services liberalisation. Such analysis is extremely important for forecasting and bidding algorithms for both balancing capacity and energy markets.