What: Common European platforms for exchange of balancing energy, aFRR, mFRR and restoration reserves (RR) are being developed. The Nordic TSOs will connect to the common European platforms PICASSO for aFRR and MARI for mFRR. 

How: TSOs collect bids from the balancing service providers (BSPs) and estimate their need for aFRR and mFRR. This is sent to the platforms where an activation optimisation function (AOF) matches the bids and needs, taking into account available cross-zonal capacities. The results from the AOF is sent back to the TSOs. Based on the results from MARI and PICASSO, the TSOs activate the bids of the BSPs. Both scheduled activations based on estimated imbalances and direct activations due to unforeseen incidents are done based on bids submitted to MARI and PICASSO. The market time unit in MARI and PICASSO is 15 minutes. 

Why: Exchanging balancing energy across TSO control areas in Europe will give huge economic gains as resources and needs are unevenly distributed across Europe.