Balancing of offshore energy hubs
A study to highlight challenges regarding balancing of offshore energy hubs under the offshore bidding zone market setup
Why read this report
This document adopts the goal to develop common knowledge to support discussions regarding system operations and balancing of offshore energy hubs located in an off- shore bidding zone. Both the reflection by ACER & CEER, the strategy of the EC and the position paper of ENTSO-E are used as the basis for the assessment. By providing this common knowledge ground, this document aims to further enable collaboration amongst TSOs to study this complex issue.
It is pivotal that the EC, Acer, Member States, NRAs and TSOs start commonly working to- wards a clear regulatory balancing frame- work and to address potential issues. Clarity on a regulatory (balancing) framework is both crucial to OWFs and TSOs, as it ensures a se- cure system on which market participants are able to calculate their business cases.
Highlights
Rather than developing a new framework, technical/ legal amendments or adjustments are foreseen to enable the facilitation of OBZs.
Directly including the imbalance demand of the offshore hubs in the EU balancing platforms seems more effi- cient than first sending the imbalance to shore where
it will be part of the onshore TSO imbalance demand. However, some regulatory changes might be required to enable this.
The analysis in this paper showed that the balancing approach for the offshore hubs will have an impact on the current (onshore) process of dimensioning of reserves. No solutions were discussed since this topic requires further discussion amongst all relevant TSOs.
