Keeping the Balance            

Balancing Rules

Elia takes action to restore the balance by using balancing services in accordance with the rules for the compensation of quarter-hourly imbalances (entry into force: 1 December 2018), as approved by the regulator (also known the Balancing Rules). 

When determining an imbalance within a BRP’s portfolio, Elia appliesimbalance tariffs proportional to the resources used by Elia to manage the imbalance in the control area.

Dimensioning of balancing services

Elia evaluates and determines the volume of balancing services that may be required to keep the balance in the control area, taking into account active power forecasts and the risk of a dimensioning incident (for example, a sudden drop in active power generation following an unplanned outage of a power plant). In line with Article 228 of the Belgian Federal Grid Code, Elia publishes following documents after approval by the regulator:

• the LFC block operational agreement specifying the dimensioning rules for Frequency Restoration Reserves or ‘FRR’ (also referred to as aFRR and mFRR);
• the LFC Means specifying the methodology which determines thevolumes of balancing capacity with which balancing services for aFRR and mFRR will be delivered.