National Grid Electricity Distribution (NGED) seeks long-term flexibility from Flex Service Providers across high-voltage and low-voltage locations in the Southwest of England and the Midlands. Over 800 locations are now open for qualification. This opportunity marks NGED’s first procurement of Demand Turn-Up and Generation Turn-Down services across three key locations.
Varying product types are required across our long-term trades: Scheduled Availability, Scheduled Utilisation, and Operational Utilisation. Full datasets about this Long-term trade and other procurement opportunities (outlining when, where, how much and postcode data) can be found in our Connected Data Portal.
How do I get started?
Across all our markets, NGED is looking to grow volumes by opening as many routes to market as possible, and earlier this year a partnership with Piclo was established. Piclo is fully integrated into NGED’s short and long-term flexibility trades, empowering Flex Service Providers to seamlessly complete the end-to-end journey for long and short-term trades through Piclo Max.
Find out how to participate in NGED’s long-term trade by following this handy step-by-step guide. Go to the FAQs tab to answer common questions, especially regarding earning examples (bid prices).
Key Competition Dates:
National Grid Electricity Distribution seeks short-term flexibility from DERs across 11 low-voltage locations in the Southwest of England. The week-ahead trade allows NGED to procure flexibility in a ‘week-ahead’ of the service delivery window.
Competitions are typically uploaded every Monday. Bidding opens every Wednesday and closes on the following Tuesday. FSPs must complete the qualification process before bidding. Find out more about the week-ahead trades on the FAQs tab and view this week’s trades on the Piclo map.
National Grid Electricity Distribution are currently procuring Low Voltage Sustain Flexibility for Winter 2024/2025 through the Piclo platform.
The timetable for this procurement is below;
15th Jan 2024 – Proposed CMZs published
15th Jan 2024 – Sustain Trade Response Window open
23rd Feb 2024 – Sustain Trade Response Window closed
22nd Mar 2024 – Sustain Trades awarded
For any other information or queries, please contact NG’s Flexible Power Team at: nged.flexiblepower@nationalgrid.co.uk
Current and future Procurement Opportunities (Including; Where, When and How Much);
Flexibility – Requirements - Dataset - National Grid's Connected Data Portal
Tools and Documents (Including; Procurement and Engagement Timetable and Guidance Documents)
Piclo has partnered with National Grid Electricity Distribution (NGED) to run NGED's new week-ahead flexibility competitions. The infographic below shows the cadence of events per competition.
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Visible: Competition is visible on Piclo and pre-qualification checks are made against eligible assets.
Bidding Window: Week ahead competition is now open for bidding using all qualified assets. Bidding is open from 00:00 Wednesday until 12:00 Tuesday.
Decision: NGED will endeavour to decision bids by Thursday after bidding closes. Notifications of bid results and resultant contractual obligations will be shortly after.
Service Week: Users are expected to provide service delivery in accordance with the dispatch signals received. Depending on the competition type these dispatches will be scheduled or dynamic in nature.
Note: Company qualification and asset upload are not limited to a timeframe, they can be completed at any time.
For any other information or queries, please contact NG’s Flexible Power Team at: nged.flexiblepower@nationalgrid.co.uk
What will Piclo do with my data?:
For all NGED competitions Piclo will be facilitating an integration with their Market Gateway platform. This will allow Piclo users to take part in NGED’s competitions without having to create or maintain accounts across multiple platforms.
This means we will require your consent to create a Market Gateway account and upload asset data on your behalf. This consent question can be found within NGED’s company qualification form.
What if I already have a Market Gateway account?:
If you already have a Market Gateway account it will not be changed in any way. If any contractual obligations are outstanding within your previous account they can still be managed through Market Gateway as usual.
The new account Piclo will create can then be used for any future trading you wish to undertake through Piclo. We will ensure the correct asset and metering data is migrated to the relevant NGED platforms when applicable.
What are the service requirements for HV and LV long-term trades?
HV Long-term Trades
NGED will use the SAOU product (Scheduled Availability, Operational Utilisation - Day Ahead) for long-term service procurement to support the network during peak exceedance and specific fault conditions, such as maintenance work. The product offers a low availability payment coupled with a higher utilisation payment.
Also, NGED will be procuring the Operational Utilisation (OU_15) product across all of the HV Zones:
LV Long-term 24/25 Trades
The SU_SPP service (Scheduled Utilisation - Specific Periods) is designed to manage peak demand on the network and proactively reduce network loading. It operates on a utilisation-only basis with fixed delivery windows.
What are the different NGED product types?:
Please be aware, even if availability payments are available you will not need to enter an availability price when you bid. Availability pricing is calculated automatically by applying a fixed ratio to your utilisation price. Full details can be found in the “Bidding Guidance” section.
What type of assets can qualify?:
NGED will only qualify operational assets intending to take part in their upcoming competitions. Operational assets can be uploaded to Piclo using the “Operational & Developing Assets” tab in the asset upload template.
Please do not upload any planned assets intended to participate in NGED’s competitions using the “Planned Assets'' tab in the asset upload template, as these will not be eligible for qualification.
What asset data is required?:
To ensure your asset(s) can be qualified for NGED’s competitions please ensure the following data points are uploaded in to Piclo (these data points are currently marked as “optional” in the asset upload template):
These data points can be added when uploading new asset(s) or by editing already uploaded assets. This can be done by going to Manage > Assets, downloading your existing assets, adding the relevant data points and then re-uploading them.
What service response time is required?:
Obligated groups of assets are expected to be able to deliver 15 minutes after a start dispatch instruction has been received. By submitting a bid we will assume this requirement can be adhered to. This response time requirement is especially important if:
What type of baselines are available?:
There are four types of baseline available when participating in NGED competitions:
How will my baseline be calculated?:
Full details on NGED baseline values can be found here.
Please contact us if your baseline method is “Self-Nominate” so that we can inform NGED of your nominated value.
What bidding rules do I need to follow?:
The following bidding rules must be followed per competition (below table). Please be aware, these rules will not be validated within the Piclo UI, so ensure they have been adhered to before submitting your bids.
If you have already submitted a bid and would like to edit it you can by going to Manage > Bids > Edit active bids before the bidding window closes. We will not send your bids to NGED for consideration if the two bidding rules above are not adhered to.
How will my availability price be calculated?:
For NGED competitions that include availability payments, you will not need to enter availability prices when you bid. NGED will determine your availability pricing by applying a fixed ratio (utilisation price x fixed ratio) to your utilisation price. The different fixed ratios by product type are listed below:
How will the Piclo Max service fee impact my bid?:
The FSP uses the Piclo platform as normal to identify opportunities and submit bids. Upon bidding, Piclo adds the service fee (in this case 2.5%) to the FSP bid for both availability and utilisation as applicable, before submitting the total bid price to the DSO for evaluation alongside other bids received. Full details can be found here.
Are NGED competitions pay as clear or pay as bid?:
NGED competitions operate as pay as clear market. In a pay as clear market, the DSO evaluates all bids received and the participants are all awarded the highest price procured; the cleared price.
Do NGED competitions have a utilisation ceiling price?:
Each NGED constraint management zone has a specific ceiling price. Bids over this price will be classed as uneconomic and will not be accepted. Please be aware that the Max service fee will increase your submitted bid price, so please ensure this uplift will not lead to a breach of the zone ceiling price.
How does a pay-as-clear market work?:
In a pay-as-clear market, the DSO evaluates all bids received and the participants are all awarded the highest price procured; the cleared price.
Each FSP bid will therefore result in one of three outcomes:
How will I know the outcome of my bids?:
Your bid results email will show you how many of your bids have been accepted and therefore awarded a cleared price. Accepted bids will become contractual obligations, the full details of which can be reviewed within your contractual obligations file. If you would like to know the cleared price you have been awarded before you receive your invoice please contact our customer service team.
Please note, currently the uplifted bid that Piclo creates and sends to NGED will not be visible within the bid results file. Even if you have been awarded a cleared price by NGED the bid results file will always show your original bid sent to NGED as “rejected”.
When will I receive dispatch instructions?:
A start dispatch instruction email is sent up to 15 minutes before the required start time to allow for asset ramp up. A corresponding stop dispatch instruction email is sent at the required stop time. Start and stop dispatch instruction emails include the NGED constraint area name where the service is required. Full details on the capacity required can be found within your contractual obligations file.
Please note that NGED dispatching will be exclusively handled by emails, even if you are currently integrated with Piclo's dispatch APIs.
When do I need to send metering data?:
All metering data for a specific delivery month must be uploaded by the 14th calendar day of the following month. This includes half hourly metering data for:
When will invoices be shared?:
Invoices will be shared by the 17th of each month for services delivered in the previous month. Please contact customer success if you have any questions or would like to raise a dispute.