In 2023/24, we contracted 706 MW of Flexibility Services: dispatched 554 MWh and spent £275k.
If you own, operate, manage or supply generation, storage or demand assets over 10kW in any of the advertised zones you may be able to provide flexibility services.
How to Take Part in Flexibility
The first time you participate there are several steps that you need to take.
To participate in Flexibility Services with SSEN, you will follow our standard process that takes place on our Market Platform, ElectronConnect. This starts with registration and prequalification. A copy of the “Flexibility Service Pre-Qualification Standard Template” will be available on ElectronConnect and can also be found under “Service Documentation” in
Once you are pre-qualified, you can move on to contracting through 2-week long “mini-competitions” where you accept the Terms and Conditions of the Overarching Agreement. After the mini-competition closes, submissions are reviewed and approved Providers are awarded an overarching agreement for signature. Signing the overarching agreement allows you to participate in future biddings windows. These mini-competitions typically occur several times a year, so keep an eye out for announcements.
Before the bidding window opens, you'll prepare by declaring which of your assets are located in areas where we are seeking flexibility, as announced in advance. We conduct long term bidding windows 2-3 times a year, for needs >3-months in advance, as well as monthly short term bidding windows for upcoming needs in <3-months.
If your bids for flexibility are successful, you will be notified of availability needs at the period of time specified by the service type (either month ahead, week ahead or day ahead).
Upcoming Bidding Rounds
Long-Term, > 3-months Ahead
Monday 17th of February 2025 09:00 – Monday 3rd March 2025 11:00
Short Term, Month Ahead:
Tuesday 7th January 09:00 – Thursday 9th January 17:00
Tuesday 4th February 09:00 – Thursday 6th February 17:00
Tuesday 11th March 09:00 – Thursday 13th March 17:00
Upcoming Opportunities to Become a Flexibility Provider
If you’re interested in taking part in future long-term and short-term auctions and you do not have an overarching agreement, you have an opportunity to take part in an upcoming mini-competition for contracting that is scheduled to start on Monday the 6th of January 2025.
Providers that have met the Pre-qualification criteria will be invited to take part in the next opportunity to be awarded an Overarching Contract.
Providers that have not completed the Pre-qualification criteria but will like to take part in the mini-competition, are advised to do so by registering on our Electron Connect market platform and making their pre-qualification submission. It is recommended to complete both these steps by Wednesday the 18th of December 2024 to guarantee prequalification process is complete before the contracting process starts. If you have not prequalified you cannot participate in the contracting process beginning on the 6th of January.
Providers that sign the overarching agreement in time will have the opportunity to take part in our next Long-term auction scheduled to start on Monday 17th of February to Monday 3rd March.
Access to ElectronConnect for accepting the terms and conditions will be available on Monday the 6th of January using the link to ElectronConnect.
If you need to pre-qualify, a copy of the “Flexibility Service Pre-Qualification Standard Template” is available on ElectronConnect and can also be found under “Service Documentation” in our document library: Flexibility Services Document Library - SSEN
Flexibility Services Webinar October 4th 2024
Participating in Flexibility with SSEN
SSEN has long served diverse geographic areas, and this experience means we’ve always innovated when it comes to managing the supply and demand of electricity.
We continue to make progress in building our flexibility markets, having procured over 700 MW since the beginning of ED2. We have also signed up a total of 12 providers to the latest version of the overarching agreement, ready to bid in our markets.
To maximise market participation, we have done the following over the past year:
- Reduced minimum DER (Distributed Energy Resources) size to 10 kW
- Trialed Guaranteed revenue for some Variable Availability services
- Improved Bid Pricing Form
- Implemented Overarching Agreements
Document Library
Access our document library for service documents, reports, and procurement-related information.
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