Bidding
Bid in daily capacity bids or energy bids
Once the contract is signed and onboarding is successfully finished, BSPs can participate in auctions for balancing services. There are two distinct markets for the flexibility products:
- The capacity market for FCR, mFRR and aFRR
- The energy market for mFRR and aFRR
Capacity bids ensure Elia to have a minimum volume of bids in the balancing energy auctions, but this capacity is not activated by default.
Awarded capacity bids are an obligation for the BSP to offer energy bids during the concerned CCTU (i.e. the time-window), for a minimum of the awarded volume.
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Capacity bidding vs. Energy bidding
BSPs interact with Elia’s balancing market through two main types of bids:
- Capacity bidding
- Submit capacity bid in daily capacity auctions. The resulting volume of awarded capacity must be offered in energy bids (=contracted energy bid).
- Energy bidding
- Submit energy bid, contracted energy bids must be submitted until D-1 3pm, non-contracted energy bids 25min prior to time of delivery
In the table below an overview is given of the two types:
Capacity Bidding Energy bidding What are the characteristics? - Engaging to offer a service (=submit energy bids) for a 4-hour time block on Day D
- Capacity auctions take place daily on Day D-1 for all 4-hour time blocks on Day D
- Offering a service for a 15-min time block on Day D
- Selection process taking place just before time of delivery (=ToD), every 4sec for aFRR or 15 min for mFRR of Day D
Why is Elia doing this? Being awarded capacity comes with the obligation to submit an energy bid. This is a way for Elia to ensure sufficient energy bids will be submitted.
By activating energy bids, Elia can restore the balance of the grid. Why is it interesting for a BSP? If you can offer explicit balancing services for a 4-hour time block, participating to the capacity auction can be an extra revenue stream.
There is a revenue opportunity for changing the consumption/production behavior of your assets. - Capacity bidding
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Bidding Timeline
As capacity bids are linked to energy bids, they happen before energy bidding takes place. Note that FCR does not include energy bidding, more information on that below
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Product-specific bidding details
The exact specificities of bidding differ among the balancing products:
Capacity bidding Energy bidding FCR aFRR mFRR aFRR mFRR Volume Minimum volume = 1MW, volume granularity = 1MW Time block 4h 4h or 24h
4h 15min Direction
Symmetrical Up and/or down Up Up and/or down Price €/MWh €/MWh
Other / Contracted or non-contracted, delivery points…* - In some cases, submitting an energy bid for both mFRR and aFRR for the same quarter-hour is forbidden.
- 4h capacity bids are divisible in volume (=can be partially selected), 24h capacity bids are indivisible
- mFRR Energy bids can be linked to reflect technical and economical constraints
Note also that
- For units above 25 MW (refer to T&Cs for details), all available active power must be offered as either aFRR or mFRR energy bids.
- For FCR, you also need to nominate available capacities before the deadline (45min prior ToD); this has been excluded from energy bidding as there is no price/remuneration for this step, it is merely a nomination for the contracted capacity bids.
For more details, please refer to the design note of each product, and the T&Cs themselves, both of which you can find on the respective product pages.
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How to submit bids?
The application can vary by product (FCR, aFRR & mFRR) and the type of bid (capacity vs energy). For an overview, see the table below with a link to the page of each application:
Purpose Product Tool Link Capacity bidding aFRR, mFR
FCR
STAR (Short-Term Auctioning of Reserves) Platform to submit individual aFRR/mFRR capacity bids for every short-term auction period, via GUI or API
Regelleistung
Platform to submit individual FCR capacity bids for every short-term auction period, via GUI or API
Transfer of capacity obligations FCR, aFRR,
mFRR
SMART (Secondary Market Reserve Trading)
Platform to notify Elia of any exchange of reserve obligations between BSPs on a day-ahead and intraday basis, manually via GUI
SMART Energy bidding aFRR, mFRR BIPLE (Bidding Platform for Energy)
Platform to submit aFRR/mFRR energy bids for every quarter-hour of the delivery period, via GUI or API
BIPLE Capacity nominations FCR BMAP (Bidding Market Platform)
Platform to nominate the available FCR capacities for every quarter-hour of the delivery period, via GUI or API. This application will be decommissioned. As of Q1 2026, BIPLE will be the new platform
BMAP
