mFRR, manual Frequency Restoration Reserve
Fingrid maintains the Nordic mFRR energy market together with the other Nordic transmission system operators (TSOs). Balancing service providers (BSPs) can submit bids to the mFRR energy market for the assets in their control.
Each Nordic TSO will activate the necessary amount of bids in the mFRR energy market to cover the forecasted or detected imbalances in their control area and to maintain the system security of the electricity system in normal operating conditions and disturbances. Fingrid pays the BSP for the energy activated in the mFRR energy market in case of up-regulation, or the BSP pays Fingrid in case of down-regulation.
Fingrid procures capacity from the mFRR capacity market to ensure that there is sufficient amount of mFRR at any given time to maintain the power balance between production and consumption and for other needs required to ensure the operational security of the transmission network. In the mFRR capacity market, the BSP undertakes to submit a number of mFRR energy offers to the mFRR energy market corresponding to the capacity offers accepted in the tendering process and receives capacity compensation for the capacity it maintains.
Participation in the mFRR energy and capacity market requires a mFRR market agreement with Fingrid and either a balancing service provider’s settlement agreement or an imbalance settlement agreement with the imbalance settlement unit eSett, as eSett performs the invoicing of mFRR energy. More information about these contracts and the invoicing model is available on the eSett website
The mFRR energy market is currently being developed and the intention is for the Nordic mFRR energy market to become part of the Europe-wide reserve market.
mFRR bids can be submitted for resources that are able to implement a power change within 12.5 minutes in accordance with the minimum bid size.
mFRR capacity bids
The minimum bid size for the mFRR capacity market is 1 MW and bids are submitted with an accuracy of 1 MW. Bids for the next day will be submitted at 08:30 (Finnish time) on the Fifty MMS market platform maintained by the Nordic TSOs in accordance with Fingrid's separate Reserve Trading and Information Exchange and BSP - Implementation Guide Nordic MMS – mFRR capacity market guidelines.
mFRR energy bids
In the mFRR energy market, the minimum bid size is 1 MW and bids are submitted with an accuracy of 1 MW.
mFRR offers are submitted to Fingrid no later than 45 minutes before the market period (15 minutes) in accordance with Fingrid's Reserve Trading and Information Exchange Guidelines.
mFRR energy bids are activated on the Nordic market platform on a scheduled basis for each 15-minute market time unit, 7.5 minutes before the start of the market time unit. A Nordic bid list is created from all Nordic mFRR energy bids by arranging the bids in price order from cheapest to most expensive. mFRR energy bids are activated in price order within the limits of available cross-border transmission capacity. For up regulating bids, the cheapest is used first, and for down regulating bids, the most expensive is used first. If a bid cannot be used due to operational conditions, the next most economical available bid is selected.
mFRR energy bids can also be activated directly between scheduled activations if the need for balancing changes unexpectedly. Direct activation mainly uses mFRR energy bids from the Finnish area, where the BSP has indicated availability for this purpose. Direct activation always applies to two consecutive 15-minute market time units.
mFRR energy bids are activated via an electronic message.
mFRR energy prices are determined based on mFRR energy bids selected for activation in the Nordic mFRR energy market or locally. For each market time unit, both an up- and a down-regulation prices are determined.
The upward price is the price of the most expensive upward bid activated in a bottleneck-free area. All up-regulation offers that Fingrid has activated for balancing purposes will be paid for energy according to the up-regulation price.
The down-regulation price is the price of the cheapest down-regulation bid used. All down-regulation bids that Fingrid has activated for balancing purposes will pay for energy according to the down-regulating price.
mFRR energy offers can also be activated as special regulation, i.e. for purposes other than balancing. In this case, the price of the bid is paid for the activation on a pay-as-bid basis.
The price of mFRR energy is also the basis for pricing the imbalance energy.
mFRR energy prices are primarily published on Nord Pool's website, in the NUCS system and on the ENTSO-E transparency platform, as well as in Fingrid's open data, as a rule, within 30 minutes of the end of the market time period. From time to time, there may be deviations in the publication of the price, which are described in more detail in this document.
In the mFRR capacity market, the balancing service provider receives capacity compensation on a marginal price basis, i.e. according to the most expensive accepted offer. The amount of the compensation will be determined after the procurement period based on the mFRR energy offers submitted.
The mFRR market agreements are consistent in terms and content and are publicly available.
Data on the mFRR reserve market can be found on the Reserve Market Information page and on the Fingrid Open Data service.
The mFRR market agreements are consistent in terms and content and are publicly available.
Data on the mFRR reserve market can be found on the Reserve Market Information page and on the Fingrid Open Data service.
Details
Niko Korhonen
Expert
tel. +358 30 395 4139
Otso-Ville Rinne
Expert
tel. +358 30 395 4142