Open Balancing Platform: Testing NGESO’s new platform ahead of launch.
As the leading provider of GB electricity market access software, Quorum has been working with NGESO to test the Open Balancing Platform (OBP) in preparation for its launch.
OBP marks a significant step forward in how NGESO operates in the Balancing Mechanism (BM). The platform is designed to automate and scale up control room actions, enhancing the competitiveness, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness of the GB electricity system. Initially, OBP will focus on dispatch optimisation, introducing functionality such as bulk dispatch for small BMUs and Battery zones, with plans to encompass the whole BM in the future.
What’s new?
OBP introduces an algorithm to automate the selection of bids that collectively meet the required response at the lowest cost. It will also send bulk Bid Offer Acceptances (BOAs) to market participants, replacing the current manual process.
How will OBP affect you?
With Bids and BOAs continuing to be exchanged through EDT and EDL, participants’ business processes remain unchanged. OBP is, however, expected to generate a significantly higher number of BOAs. With this in mind, we’ve rigorously tested the system to confirm it can handle this increased volume, ensuring a seamless transition for our customers from day one.
With over half of BM participants using Sentinel to communicate with NGESO and our extensive experience in providing customer test environments, Quorum was well positioned to test OBP.
Testing OBP
Utilising our virtualisation expertise, we created multiple test environments to replicate a subset of the GB electricity market, comprising 5 market participants using 104 BMUs across varied asset classes. Our network team then created a secure connection between our test system and OBP via the BM test system.
End-to-end testing was successfully conducted, sending EDT and EDL flows back and forth across the entire system, including OBP, the BM, Sentinel and multiple market participant test platforms. Sentinel’s automated instruction and submission features enabled continuous testing for 8 days, during which 4,257 BOAs were processed.
We are grateful to NGESO for allowing us the opportunity to test against OBP and for their help in setting up the system. Quorum is ready.
Want to find out more? Let’s Talk.