Quick Reserve
Quick Reserve is a service used to quickly balance the energy supply and demand to keep the electrical frequency stable. This is important because the system is changing, and we need faster ways to manage energy imbalances.
Key Messages
Phase 2 of Quick Reserve has now gone live with the first auction accessible to non-BM units having taken place on 2nd September 2025.
On 9th July, NESO issued direct communication to industry parties who have shown interest in Quick Reserve, either as a provider or interested party. The communication provides support to the Quick Reserve on-boarding process. For any party who has not received this direct communication, the communication can be viewed/downloaded here.
Negative Quick Reserve (NQR) and Positive Quick Reserve (PQR).
There are two types of Quick Reserve: Negative Quick Reserve (NQR) and Positive Quick Reserve (PQR). They both work to correct imbalances and return the frequency close to 50.0 Hz.
Phase one of Quick Reserve went live on the Enduring Auction Capability (EAC) platform on 19 November 2024. We're now working on Phase 2, which will include more participants. The plans for Phase 2 went out for consultation in January 2025.
To take part, providers need to prequalify by creating their assets and units in the Single Markets Platform and complete pre-qualification for the service. Key guidance and demos for the SMP can be found on this page.
If you have any questions, please contact us.
How to Participate
Service Terms and Procurement Rules
Note: Documents referenced as 'Phase 2' will become effective upon the effective date highlighted on the Quick Reserve Phase 2 Service Terms.
To participate in Quick Reserve your asset/unit will need to be registered in the Single Market Platform (SMP).
The Enduring Auction Capability (EAC) Market design Explainer can be downloaded.
Service Providers holding a Quick Reserve contract and wishing to transfers obligations to another unit should complete and submit the request to all of the following addresses :
Please ensure all template instructions are followed.
| Technical Design Element | Requirement |
| Direction | Positive and Negative |
| Provider eligibility | Non-BM & BM units with control/system telephony during contracted Periods |
| Time to full delivery | 1-minute from instruction start time |
| Minimum Activation Period | Not greater than 5-minutes |
| Maximum Recovery Period | Not greater than 3-minutes |
| Energy Requirement | The unit must be able to deliver the full contracted capacity |
| Operational/Performance Metering | 1 Hz, up to 5s latency |
Please find supporting documentation below to support IT integrations for the Quick Reserve service. Please note, whilst all of the IT Integration material in this section is applicable to non-BM participation, only the Performance Metering documentation is relevant to BM service providers.
We have released version 1.3 of the OBP Web Service Specification for non-BM service providers, together with WSDL files that formally define the interface between service providers and the OBP application. The documents specify the Quick and Slow Reserve services, which include:
- Physical Notification service
- Availability service
- Heartbeat service
- Dispatch/Cease Instruction service
In addition to the API documentation, NESO has issued a unified Business Logic Document (BLD) version 1.0 for both Quick Reserve (QR) and Slow Reserve (SR), offering guidance for non-BM providers of both contracted and optional services. The BLD applies equally to QR and SR services. A new validation has been introduced to ensure that declared capacity does not exceed pre-qualified capacity; if it does, NESO will reject it.
The BLD outlines the business rules and exceptions for the API, which Quick Reserve and Slow Reserve service providers must implement. It includes the following:
- Availability Service: Validation NESO applies to information from providers.
- Availability Confirmation: Validation NESO expects providers to apply to information from NESO.
- Dispatch/Cease Service: Validation NESO expects providers to apply to information from NESO.
- Dispatch/Cease Confirmation Service: Validation NESO applies to Dispatch/Cease information from providers.
- Heartbeat Service: Validation NESO applies to information from providers.
- Heartbeat Negative Acknowledgement (NACK): Validation NESO expects providers to apply to information from NESO.
- Physical Notification: Validation NESO applies to information from providers.
- Physical Notification Confirmation: Validation NESO expects providers to apply to information from NESO.
This document describes the operational metering architecture that NESO has in place to enable non-BM participation in Quick Reserve.
This document describes the proposed solution for NESO to accept and store Quick Reserve Performance Metering data from individual Service Providers (SPs). Please note this is applicable to both BM and non-BM participation.
The requirement for Performance Metering Data for BM and NBM units is expected with a second-by-second granularity, so that the meter value provided can be used for settlement purposes. The interface data and transmission requirements that service providers must meet are also outlined, describing the concept of operations for the interface, defining the message structure and protocols that govern the interchange of data, and identifying the communication paths from which NESO expects data to flow.
The intended audience of this document are external service providers and internal teams across NESO that are associated with development and operations of the systems connected to the interface.
The data design specification provides the following information:
- a general description of the interface
- data specifications including source, target and validation details, data formats and classification
- a description of the transport characteristics including transfer, data exchange, interface processing requirements, flow control and security
- assumptions and outstanding questions
Also published is a sample file to provide an example of the required data structure.
Data Publications
NESO publishes non-BM data continuously throughout the day on the NESO data portal, consisting of non-BM instruction data, Availability Declarations (MW and Price), and Baselines/Final Notifications (FPNs).
Please find below a SAMPLE file of the non-BM instruction data file as it would appear on the Data Portal and links to each dataset on the NESO data portal.
Quick Reserve Phase 2 Onboarding Webinar - 3 July 2025
Below is a recording and slide pack for our recent Quick Reserve Phase 2 onboarding webinar
| Webinar | Slides |
|---|---|
| Watch Webinar | Download Slides |
Drop-in sessions
A series of drop-in sessions where NESO IT teams will run through and demonstrate the key requirements for integrating with NESO systems such as OBP, Settlement and Operational Metering for Phase 2 Quick Reserve prior to go live. Each session will include time for Q&A with session recordings published here in the following days.
| Title | Date | Information | Slides |
|---|---|---|---|
| Session 1 | 20 March 2025 | Watch Session | |
| Session 2 | 27 March 2025 | Watch Session | View Slides |
| Session 3 | 3 April 2025 | Watch Session | View Slides |
| Session 4 | 10 April 2025 | Register |
| Title | Date | Information | Slides |
|---|---|---|---|
| Session 1 | 26 Sep 2024 | Watch Session | |
| Session 2 | 03 Oct 2024 | Watch Session | |
| Session 3 | 10 Oct 2024 | Watch Session | |
| Session 4 | 17 Oct 2024 | Watch Session | |
| Session 5 | 24 Oct 2024 | Watch Session | Download Slides |
| Session 6 | 31 Oct 2024 | Watch Session | |
| Session 7 | 07 Nov 2024 | Watch Session |
Quick Reserve Webinar - 8 July 2024
Following the webinar held on 8 July 2024 we have shared the slides, Q&A and a recording of the webinar.
| Watch the webinar | Download the slides | Download the Q&A |
Industry workshop for Phase 1 Quick Reserve - 1 February 2024
Following the webinar held on 1 February 2024, we have shared the slides and a recording of the webinar.
| Watch the webinar | Download the slides |
Reserve Reform update webinar - 19 December 2023
Following the webinar held on 19 December 2023, we have shared the slides, Q&A and a recording of the webinar.
| Watch the webinar | Download the slides | Download the Q&A |
Reserve Reform update webinar - 9 March 2023
Following the webinar held on 19 December 2023, we have shared the slides, Q&A and a recording of the webinar.
| Watch the webinar | Download the slides |
Reserve Reform update webinar - 4 November 2021
Following the webinar held on 19 December 2023, we have shared the slides, Q&A and a recording of the webinar.
| Watch the webinar |
Documents in this section should be used only for information and should not be used to reflect any rules, terms, or guidance of the Quick Reserve service.
Archived Service Documents
Quick Reserve Consultations
Consultation Closed: 4th July 2025
On 4th July 2025, Ofgem set out its decision to approve the update to the T&C to reflect relevant sections of the service documentation for non-BM QR, into the balancing terms and conditions, as required by Article 18 of the EBGL. This Article 18 consultation proposed the service and procurement design for the enduring (Phase 2) Quick Reserve service, incorporating both BM (Balancing Mechanism) and non-BM (non-Balancing Mechanism) market participants.
NESO propose amendments to the Quick Reserve A18 submission to Ofgem on 25th April 2025. The proposal is to introduce a change to the Quick Reserve Service Terms (a modified paragraph 20.12) in order to facilitate provision of additional close to real-time availability and dispatch data transparency, where this data is not already published through the Balancing and Settlements Code (BSC).
We submitted this proposal as part of the recent (16 May 2025) SR Article 18 consultation inviting industry feedback. This consultation is now closed and based on the feedback received we wish to proceed with this proposal.
The following documents form part of our formal submission to Ofgem to consider the requested amendments.
| Name | Published |
|---|---|
| Quick Reserve Crossover Guidance | 3 Apr 2025 |
| Quick Reserve Market Design | 13 Feb 2025 |
| Quick Reserve Phase 2 Service and Procurement design | 12 Feb 2025 |
Consultation Closed: Oct 2024
The initial Quick Reserve service (Phase 1) A18 introduced the Quick Reserve Service Terms and Procurement Rules in December 2024 incorporating BM (Balancing Mechanism) market participants. Please find the associated A18 documentation.
| Name | Published Sort ascending |
|---|---|
| Response Procurement Rules (QR changes) | 30 Aug 2024 |
| Response Procurement Rules (QR changes) - Compare | 30 Aug 2024 |
| Quick Reserve - Form B | 30 Aug 2024 |
| QR - Pricing Proposal | 30 Aug 2024 |
| Quick Reserve Form C | 30 Aug 2024 |
| Quick Reserve Market Design | 30 Aug 2024 |
| Quick Reserve Procurement Rules - Clean | 30 Aug 2024 |
| Quick Reserve Procurement Rules - Compare | 30 Aug 2024 |
| Quick Reserve Service Terms - Clean | 30 Aug 2024 |
| Quick Reserve Service Terms - Compare | 30 Aug 2024 |
| Name | Published Sort ascending |
|---|---|
| Quick Reserve - Summary design document | 19 Sep 2024 |
| Quick Reserve Pricing Proposal | 27 Jun 2024 |
| Quick Reserve Market Design | 27 Jun 2024 |
| Quick Reserve - Maximum Recovery Period | 27 Jun 2024 |
Further enquiries
Get in touch with the Balancing Services team, who can answer any questions you may have.
Technical Parameters
| Technical Design Element | Requirement |
| Direction | Positive and Negative |
| Provider eligibility | Non-BM & BM units with control/system telephony during contracted Periods |
| Time to full delivery | 1-minute from instruction start time |
| Minimum Activation Period | Not greater than 5-minutes |
| Maximum Recovery Period | Not greater than 3-minutes |
| Energy Requirement | The unit must be able to deliver the full contracted capacity |
| Operational/ Performance Metering |
1 Hz, up to 5s latency
|