Just recently, on June 24th 2021 ENTSO-E announced that the International Grid Control platform (IGCC) fulfills all requirements and is now the established platform for Imbalance Netting in the EU. Back in 2016, it was selected to become the European Platform for Imbalance Netting. IGCC was originally launched in 2010 by the four German TSOs with the purpose to avoid the activation of counteractive aFRR and save balancing costs. Due to its success, more countries and TSOs joined with currently 20 operational members.

IGCC has a substantial impact on the TSOs’ operations, since they are obliged to report their automatic Frequency Restoration Reserve (aFRR) demand and wait for a correction signal before they activate aFRR providers. While TSOs must adapt, Balance Service Providers (BSPs) are not part of the platform. The consequence for BSPs mainly consists of reduced activations.

To all energy traders providing and trading balancing energy: Have you thought about the impact of IGCC on cross-border capacity prices and the impact on price levels for the balancing energy auctions? This might have an impact on your bidding strategies in place! Analyse this now to be a front-runner! Check out the framework, the process and the current development of the platform in our newest release.