The role of the BRP

To help maintain the balance on the grid between generation and consumption, Elia has Balance Responsible Parties (BRP) at every access point.

Balance Responsible Party (BRP)

For each grid access point , there must be a designated BRP. The BRP may be a producer, major customer, energy supplier or trader.
As a result, each BRP is responsible for a portfolio of access points and must develop and take all reasonable measures to maintain the balance between injections, offtakes and commercial power trades within its portfolio.

Daily balance schedule

In D-1, the BRP must submit to Elia a daily balance schedule for its portfolio for delivery day D , which consists of:

Expected physical injections and offtakes from the grid;
Commercial power trades, i.e. purchases and sales, with other BRPs and/or related to imports and exports on the borders.

Until delivery day 1 December 2021, the daily balance schedule had to be balanced on a quarter-hourly basis (the sum of injections and purchases had to equal the sum of offtakes and sales). As from delivery day 2 December 2021, Elia started progressively relaxing this balance obligation*: the difference, in absolute value, between injections and purchases on the one hand, and offtakes and sales on the other hand, must now be less than or equal to the Maximum Authorised Day-ahead Imbalance of the BRP.

The Maximum Authorised Day-ahead Imbalance of the BRP may evolve over time . Until delivery day 1st December 2022, it is equal to 50% of the size of the portfolio of the BRP. As from delivery day 2nd December 2022, it is equal to 100% of the size of the portfolio of the BRP.

Real Time Balance

Obligation The BRP has to provide and deploy all reasonable resources in order to be balanced in real time on a quarter hourly basis. To reach balance at portfolio level, a BRP can exchange energy with other BRPs for the following day (day-ahead) or for the same day ( intraday ).

This real time balance obligation comes with one exception: a BRP can deviate from the balance of its portfolio to help Elia balance the overall system , provided that he is able to restore, in real time and at any moment, the balance of its portfolio.

Find out more on how to become a BRP

The first step to becoming a BRP is to submit an application form to Elia. If accepted, the BRP will sign a contract with Elia stipulating the terms and conditions for becoming a BRP and the mutual obligations between Elia and a BRP.

Learn more

Imbalance tariffs

Elia uses the ex-post measurement data of the access points and the commercial trade schedules to verify whether a BRP has remained balanced. If a BRP incurs an imbalance on a quarter-hourly basis, the BRP is subject to the imbalance tariffs.

The imbalance tariff incentivises the BRP to keep its portfolio balanced or help Elia keep the system balanced.

* In 2020, Elia performed a study relative to the Day-ahead balance obligation of the BRPs. This study concluded with a recommendation to progressively relax this obligation. More information about this study is available here .