Open letter to industry from Craig Dyke on registered BMU Control Point details and obligations

Following recent challenges that our Control Room has faced when contacting Control Points, Craig Dyke, Director of System Operations, has issued an open letter to industry requesting action for Balancing Mechanism participants, Lead Parties, and Control Points to address these issues.  

We request all stakeholders to review this letter and associated guidance materials below to support the secure and efficient operation of Great Britain's electricity system. 

Dear All,  

In recent months we have seen a growing number of instances where the NESO Control Room have experienced challenges contacting and engaging with registered Control Points for Balancing Mechanism Units (BMUs). When the NESO Control Room need to contact a BMU Control Point, out of date contacts or incorrect Control Points details can cause uncertainty in balancing actions. The inability of some Control Points to follow instructions as expected can also impact security of supply or affect operating costs.  

As the National Energy System Operator our role is to ensure that the GB electricity system is operated securely and economically. An inability of BMUs to respond to the NESO Control Room, or behave as expected when contacted, creates risks when operating the system and especially where decisions need to be made quickly and effectively. It is the obligation of Users to ensure compliance with the Grid Code and Balancing & Settlements Code (BSC) (as applicable) is maintained at all times.  

We request that all BMU Lead Parties, as defined in the BSC, take note of and respond to the below actions:  

Action 1:  

For each BMU that you, as the Lead Party, have registered with NESO, please immediately check and validate the operational contact information for the associated Control Point on the Single Markets Platform (SMP). This may require coordination between the BMU Lead Party and the Control Point operator selected for BMU operations, however it is the responsibility of the Lead Party to ensure all registered BMU information is accurate and up to date. If any updates are required to the registered Control Point information on SMP, please email the NESO Registration team at [email protected].  

To help with this action please refer to the guides for checking operational telephone numbers in SMP, available on our SMP webpage: step-by-step document and video demo.  

Action 2:  

To make the operational expectations of registered Control Points clear, we have published a high-level guidance document on Control Point operations alongside this letter. This can be found on our Grid Code documents webpage. We request that you read this document, alongside the Public relevant Grid Code and BSC references, and confirm that the respective BMU Control Points for your registered BMUs can meet these requirements.  

Action 3:  

Within 6 weeks from the date of this letter, please confirm for each of the BMUs you own and/or operate that the registered BMU Control Point contact details are accurate, and that the Control Point is able to meet the required obligations in accordance with Grid Code and BSC. Please complete the declaration included in the appendix and return to [email protected].  

In parallel to these activities, NESO will begin contacting BMU Control Points directly via telephone using registered information on SMP to confirm data accuracy. Further information about this process will be provided directly with registered Control Points prior to this exercise starting.  

If the NESO Control Room continue to experience challenges when contacting and issuing instructions to registered BMU Control Points, NESO will consider taking appropriate compliance actions in accordance with the Grid Code Compliance Processes (CP and ECP). This may include the issue of a Limited Operational Notification (LON) and restricting operation of the BMU as outlined in CP9 and EC9.  

Should you have any questions related to the content of this letter, we ask that you please submit these via email to [email protected].  

Yours sincerely,

Craig Dyke
Director of System Operations

Declaration Form for Control Points