Balancing Mechanism

The Balancing Mechanism (BM) is one of the most important tools National Grid uses to balance electricity supply and demand in real time.

When electricity generation and consumption are not in balance, National Grid uses the BM to purchase changes in generation and consumption to correct the mismatch.

Unlike balancing services such as STOR, the BM is an ad-hoc market, with no forward commitments, and highly dynamic prices. It’s operated 24/7/365, with thousands of trades issued each day. Click here to find out more about how the BM works.

The BM is a lucrative opportunity for a range of asset types, including:

Combined heat and power (CHP) generators from a range of applications, including heat networks and horticulture;
Batteries, both behind and front of the meter;
Peaking plant;
Flexible consumers in many sectors, including cold storage logistics, water treatments, manufacturing, data centres and the public sector;
Renewable resources, such as hydro, biogas, wind and solar;
Electric vehicle charge points; and
A range of electric domestic heating appliances, including storage heating and heat pumps.

What we do:

Flexitricity can manage the full Balancing Mechanism participation process for you—starting with Balancing Mechanism Unit (BMU) registration all the way through to delivery and settlement.
We offer BM participation with or without a Flexitricity supply contract (read more about BM Wider Access).
We are continuously refining our algorithms and our optimisation strategies. This, combined with our industry experience and market knowledge, means we are ideally positioned to optimise flexibility and maximise returns for our customers.
Flexitricity ensures revenue agility by offering access to the full range of energy market opportunities, stacking revenues with the BM where possible.
We provide continuous remote monitoring and a direct line to our manned control room, 24/7.

Setting up:

Minimum Bid and Offer sizes in the BM are declared in tranches of 1MW. If your asset is less than 1MW in size, Flexitricity can aggregate your assets with others by Grid Supply Point Groups, thereby overcoming this minimum 1MW threshold and allowing BM participation.
Assets that can ramp quickly such as batteries could have a price advantage in fast-moving events, but there are also plenty of opportunities to secure BM revenue for assets with slower response times.
We connect your asset(s) to our control room via our outstation installed on your site or via an API. We supply our outstations without charge, and we continue to own and maintain them. We also provide communications lines, which we pay for.

We operate on a revenue share basis and we don’t charge management or upfront fees.

Free consultation and revenue illustration

We take time to get to know each site and discuss your requirements and operational parameters. One of our industry-leading team will then compile a detailed revenue illustration. Flexitricity's approach is always grounded in reality—we only promise what can be delivered.

Implementation

Our team works hand in hand with you during engineering, commissioning and testing through to go-live. We also conduct an on site technical appraisal if required

Operation & Optimisation

We discuss and agree with you the best operational strategy for your site. Our operations team and trading desk monitor your site and the energy markets 24/7 and adjust the strategy as needed to maximise revenue for your assets.

Expansion

We help you keep up to date with the latest market developments and ensure you’re aware of any new opportunities.

Our Balancing Mechanism credentials:

Flexitricity was the first aggregator to take a behind-the-meter asset into the BM.
Flexitricity completed the first ever Balancing Mechanism transaction as a Virtual Lead Party through the Balancing Mechanism Wider Access route to market.
We have made it our mission to help shape this market in a way that benefits our customers — proposing code modifications to improve BM Wider Access implementation.

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Press release

Flexitricity and Thrive Renewables announce 20MW battery deal

Flexitricity and Bristol-based renewable energy investment company Thrive Renewables have entered into an optimisation agreement for a 20MW battery energy storage system.

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