Electricity Market and System
Elia shares the European ambition to establish an integrated electricity market and encourage different market players to provide system services.
Electricity market facilitation
Elia and other TSOs adopt transparent and non-discriminatory processes to calculate and allocate available cross-border transmission capacities. The Transfer of Energy (ToE) framework serves to help grid users enhance the value of the flexibility in their electricity offtake.
The role of the Balance Responsible Party (BRP)
Balance Responsible Parties (BRP) appointed at every grid access point contribute to maintaining a balance on the grid between generation and consumption. Producers, major customers, energy suppliers and traders can all serve as BRPs.
System services
System services allow Elia to operate the grid securely. Elia procures these services via contracts with specific providers and divides the services into five separate categories:
- Outage Planning Agents provide information on the availability of production units
- Scheduling Agents provide information on production schedules and flexibility available for congestion management
- Balancing Service Providers offer flexibility for balancing as first, secondary or tertiary control
- Voltage Service Providers respond to voltage changes automatically or at the request of Elia
- Restoration Service Providers keep production units available to restore the system in case of a blackout.
Adequacy
Adequacy ensures that the total available and expected capacity, including imports, is sufficient to meet demand at all times.
Emergency situations
For the purposes of safeguarding operational security, preventing the propagation or deterioration of an incident to avoid a widespread disturbance and the blackout state as well to allow for the efficient and rapid restoration of the electricity system from the emergency or blackout states, ELIA established a system defense plan and a restoration plan.
