Imbalance Netting

According to Article 15 of the draft Electricity Balancing Guideline all TSOs performing the automatic frequency restoration process pursuant to Part IV of Commission Regulation (EU) 2016/000 [SO] shall use the European process (…) to operate the imbalance netting process. TSOs have started Imbalance Netting cooperation with focus on the pilot projects “International Grid Control Cooperation” (IGCC), “e-GCC” and the “Imbalance Netting Cooperation” (INC). In order to start the implementation of this European process, TSOs have agreed to use the IGCC as a reference project and thereby as starting point.

The IGCC is a regional project operating the imbalance netting process which currently involves 11 TSOs from 8 countries. These are the TSOs from AT (APG), BE (Elia), CH (Swissgrid), CZ (CEPS), DE (50Hertz, Amprion, TenneT DE, TransnetBW), DK (Energinet.dk), FR (RTE), NL (TenneT NL).

Basic principle of imbalance netting

As part of their responsibility for the transmission system, the IGCC Members as Transmission System Operators (TSOs) are obliged to maintain the balance between electricity generation and consumption at all times in their respective LFC Areas. The Grid Control Cooperation is based on an automatic Frequency Restoration Reserves (aFRR)-Optimization System for the activation of aFRR.

Imbalance netting in the context of IGCC is the process agreed between TSOs of two or more LFC Areas within one or more than one Synchronous Areas, that allows for the avoidance of simultaneous aFRR activation in opposite directions by taking into account the respective area control errors as well as the activated aFRR and correcting the input of the involved frequency restoration processes accordingly.

The implementation of the process is based on the communication of the power-frequency control of a single TSO which enables online balancing of the different power imbalances. The aFRR-Demand of participating LFC Areas is reported to the aFRR-Optimization System, which returns a Correction to the secondary controllers or aFRR-Optimization System of each IGCC Member after each optimization step. In this sense the counter activation of the aFRR is avoided and therefore the use of aFRR is optimized.

IGCC interchange volumes

The volumes of exchanged energy of each IGCC member are published in real time on the German platform at
regelleistung.net

IGCC settlement principles

The volumes of exchange energy of each IGCC members are settled according to the rules described in the linked document:

Historical evolution

The implementation of the first development phase of the Grid Control Cooperation between German TSOs, made it possible to implement the imbalance netting process which aims to avoid the counter activation of aFRR within the German Control Block in 2010.

With the Grid Control Cooperation developed within the German LFC Block, the international Optimization potential could be exploited by extension to other LFC Areas. This created an opportunity for further technical and economic optimizations while not affecting the (possible) alteration of national framework conditions.

Imbalance netting across LFC Areas enables all participating TSOs to decrease the use of balancing energy and increase system security; the experience with the initial German Grid Control Cooperation has been transferred to the IGCC, which has been established by entering into bilateral accession agreements of the four German TSOs and Energinet, TenneT NL, Swissgrid, ČEPS, Elia and APG until April 2014. RTE joined the project with the role Observer from May 2014.

The objective of the IGCC Members is that the cooperation will be taken as a reference by other European TSOs in order to put the ACER Framework Guidelines (FWGL) and the GL EB into practice. Therefore the IGCC Members started working in September 2013 on the development of a Multilateral Agreement (MLA) acknowledging that this MLA shall be in line with the scope of the FWGL and the GL EB. The MLA was completed and entered into force in January 2016 replacing the previous bilateral agreements. RTE became the first member of IGCC which became a full member of the cooperation by signing the newly developed IGCC MLA.

Joining IGCC

Being the imbalance netting reference project which will transit to the European target for the Imbalance Netting Process, IGCC is subjected to extend to other TSOs in the near future. For the TSOs interested in joining the cooperation, IGCC developed an implementation guide which describes all the necessary steps to fulfil and an indicative timeline before being able to participate in IGCC.

Quick guide on how to become IGCC Member

IGCC Operational support

In case of problems with operational security, IGCC Members may support each other by reducing their participation upon request. Each IGCC Member notifies other IGCC Members about planned or unplanned temporary reductions or suspensions of its participation in IGCC.

In general, an Affected TSO (including non-IGCC members) can request a temporary reduction or suspension of participation of any IGCC Member. Each Affected TSO has to use the IGCC standardized procedure in order to request such a reduction or suspension: this is usually set as well in the system operation agreements between concerned IGCC Member(s) and the Affected TSO. Therefore, at least the following information shall be required by the IGCC Member from the Affected TSO to keep consistency and simplicity in case of finding the information:

  • brief description of reason(s) for the reduction or suspension;
  • starting time and duration of the reduction or suspension; and
  • defined Limits.

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