Monthly Balancing Services Summary (MBSS) Costs FY21-22

The costs of balancing services used by the Electricity System Operator. These costs are broken into individual months in the current current financial year, as well as by each individual service.

CKAN Data API

Access resource data via a web API with powerful query support.
Further information in the main CKAN Data API and DataStore documentation.

The Data API can be accessed via the following actions of the CKAN action API.

Query
`https://api.nationalgrideso.com/api/3/action/datastore_search`
Query (via SQL)
`https://api.nationalgrideso.com/api/3/action/datastore_search_sql`

Query example (first 5 results)
`https://api.nationalgrideso.com/api/3/action/datastore_search?resource_id=2b336174-6bff-48cc-8922-eac3b12b6e97&limit=5`
Query example (via SQL statement)
`https://api.nationalgrideso.com/api/3/action/datastore_search_sql?sql=SELECT * from "2b336174-6bff-48cc-8922-eac3b12b6e97" LIMIT 5`

A simple ajax (JSONP) request to the data API using jQuery.

var data = {
  resource_id: '2b336174-6bff-48cc-8922-eac3b12b6e97', // the resource id
  limit: 5 // get 5 results
};
$.ajax({
  url: 'https://api.nationalgrideso.com/api/3/action/datastore_search',
  data: data,
  dataType: 'jsonp',
  success: function(data) {
    alert('Total results found: ' + data.result.total)
  }
});

A simple ajax (JSONP) request to the data API using jQuery.

import urllib2
  url = 'https://api.nationalgrideso.com/api/3/action/datastore_search?resource_id=2b336174-6bff-48cc-8922-eac3b12b6e97&limit=5'
  fileobj = urllib2.urlopen(url)
  print fileobj.read()

Download (CSV)

Data Explorer

Table Information

MONTH_END

Title	Month
Type	yearmonth
Description	The month Balancing Services Use of System (BSUoS) forecasted for.
Comment
Example	Mar-20
Unit

Energy Imbalance (£)

Title	Energy Imbalance
Type	number
Description	Energy imbalance is the difference between the amount of energy generated in real time, the amount of energy consumed during that same time, and the amount of energy sold ahead of the generation time for that specific time period. The monthly energy imbalance cost can be negative or positive depending whether the market was predominantly long or short.
Comment	The energy imbalance could be a positive or negative number.
Example	0.215763367
Unit	£

Operating Reserve (£)

Title	Operating Reserve
Type	number
Description	Positive Reserve that is managed in the BM, through trades, or SO-SO services. Positive Reserve is required to operate the transmission system securely, and provides the reserve energy required to meet the demand when there are shortfalls, due to demand changes or generation breakdowns.
Comment
Example	4.426823481
Unit	£

STOR (£)

Title	Short Term Operating Reserve
Type	number
Description	Short-term Operating Reserve (STOR) allows us to have extra power in reserve for when we need it. It helps us meet extra demand at certain times of the day or if there’s an unexpected drop in generation.
Comment
Example	5.052728475
Unit	£

Constraints (£)

Title	Constraints - England & Wales
Type	number
Description	Actions taken by the ENCC for non energy system management reasons in England and Wales.
Comment
Example	23.32458662
Unit	£

Negative Reserve (£)

Title	Negative Reserve
Type	number
Description	A Negative Reserve service can provide the flexibility to reduce generation or increase demand to ensure supply and demand are balanced. The service is held in reserve to cover unforeseen fluctuations in demand, or generation from demand side PV and wind.
Comment
Example	0.104437587
Unit	£

Fast Reserve (£)

Title	Fast Reserve
Type	number
Description	Fast Reserve provides the rapid and reliable delivery of active power through an increased output from generation or a reduction in consumption from demand sources, following receipt of an electronic dispatch instruction from National Grid. Fast Reserve service must commence within two minutes following instruction, at rates of 25MW or greater per minute and providing a minimum of 50MW
Comment
Example	8.215331714
Unit	£

Response (£)

Title	Response
Type	number
Description	Response is a service we use to keep the system frequency close to 50Hz. Fast acting generation and demand services are held in readiness to manage any fluctuation in the system frequency, which could be caused by a sudden loss of generation or demand. There are three types of frequency response known as “primary”, “secondary” and “high”. The difference between primary and secondary is the speed at which they act recover the system frequency. Both primary and secondary react to low frequency conditions, and high response
Comment
Example	11.54459979
Unit	£

Other Reserve (£)

Title	Other Reserve
Type	number
Description	We currently have several other reserve services that we are not actively procuring and are under review. The aim is to move away from services procured outside of competitive mechanisms, so we do not intend to procure additional volume under the current frameworks.
Comment
Example	1.32010499
Unit	£

Reactive (£)

Title	Reactive
Type	number
Description	We manage voltage levels across the grid to make sure we stay within our operational standards and avoid damage to transmission equipment. Voltage levels are controlled by reactive power, and we pay providers to help manage voltage levels on the system by controlling the volume of reactive power that they absorb or generate.
Comment
Example	6.036476657
Unit	£

Black Start (£)

Title	Black Start
Type	number
Description	Black start is the procedure we use to restore power in the event of a total or partial shutdown of the national electricity transmission system. It means we can start up each power station in turn and reconnect them to the grid one by one. In this sort of emergency, a power station can get its electricity supply from a small back-up generating plant on the same site. But not all power stations have one of these, so we have agreements with other suppliers. They help us make sure we have enough black start arrangements in place in case we need them.
Comment
Example	5.32283393
Unit	£

Minor Components (£)

Title	Minor Components
Type	number
Description	Any actions that don’t meet the defined rules to categorise costs. This also includes costs which are not specific to an ancillary service.
Comment
Example	12.58089077
Unit	£

For any queries or feedback please contact [email protected]

You are now signed in

Monthly Balancing Services Summary (MBSS) Costs FY21-22

CKAN Data API

Data Explorer

Data Explorer

Table Information

MONTH_END

Energy Imbalance (£)

Operating Reserve (£)

STOR (£)

Constraints (£)

Negative Reserve (£)

Fast Reserve (£)

Response (£)

Other Reserve (£)

Reactive (£)

Black Start (£)

Minor Components (£)