NBM facilitates the Nordic connection to European platforms

22 April ENTSO-E published the first Accession Plans for the two new European balancing platforms, MARI for mFRR and PICASSO for aFRR. In the plan the Nordic TSOs communicate that they will connect to the platforms during the period Q3 2023 till Q2 2024. The connection to the platform is handled within the NBM project.

The indicated window to connect to the platforms implies that the Nordic TSOs will have to request a derogation from EB GL article 20.5 and 21.5 which require TSOs to connect to the platforms no later than July 2022. In the Memo – Connection to European platforms the Nordic TSOs explains how we will connect to the European platforms, but not when.

The Nordic TSOs will develop a common Nordic Activation Optimization Platform (AOF) for the mFRR energy activation market (EAM), which will be based on the same software as the MARI platform. As both the Nordic AOF and MARI is based on a TSO-TSO model where the TSOs and not the balancing service providers (BSPs) connect to the platform, the interface for the BSPs will be the same regardless of the AOF being Nordic or European. Likewise, all the new tools and systems the TSOs implement in NBM to facilitate an automatic mFRR EAM will be applicable when connecting to the MARI platform.

The Nordic AOF secures a safe transition from today's manual Nordic balancing market with 60 minutes market time unit (MTU) to an automatic mFRR EAM with 15 minutes MTU. A detailed time plan and date for connecting to MARI will be presented in the requests for derogation. This will be submitted to the relevant NRAs no later than January 2022.

The Nordic TSOs already stated in the NBM roadmap report that the Nordic TSOs will present a strategy for the aFRR EAM in the Nordics in Q2 2021. There the decision on whether to develop a Nordic AOF for aFRR or not will be communicated. This will be important input to the request for derogation submitted to the relevant NRAs no later than January 2022.