The first auction for Dynamic Regulation (DR), the newest frequency service launched by the UK’s National Grid Electricity System Operator (National Grid ESO) has gone live.

It opened on the EPEX auction platform at 14:30 on 8 April, with the first delivery window set to run from 23:00 tonight till 23:00 Saturday 9 April. The results of the auction are available on the ESO’s data portal. 

DR is a pre-fault service which is designed to correct continuous but small deviations in frequency.

The launch of DR follows on from Dynamic Containment going live in October 2020, providing a significant boom to battery energy storage operators in the UK. Its high initial price of £17 (US$22.17)/MW/h in particular drew attention, boosting the revenue stack of storage assets.

It was first called into action less than 24 hours after it was launched, when an interconnector tripped while importing 1,000MW and the 139MW of battery capacity taking part in the first auction responded. 

While the service initially procured just low frequency Dynamic Containment services, in November 2021 this was expanded to include high frequency services too. 

In December 2021, a little over a year since the service was initially launched, Faye Relton, ancillary services development manager at National Grid ESO wrote an article for our sister site Current±, reflecting on how it had developed and the next steps for frequency response, including the introduction of DR. 

Following on from the launch of DR, the ESO will introduce the last service in the suite, Dynamic Moderation, set to go live on EPEX on 21 April, with the first action to be held on 6 May.

This story first appeared on Current±.