National Grid has announced proposed dates for next year’s Capacity Market auctions, unveiling a streamlined appeals and auction process.
Today the system operator’s EMR delivery body published its operational plan milestones review, setting out draft dates for the next round of Capacity Market auctions scheduled to take place early next year.
National Grid appears to have listened to insight from auction participants, as the forthcoming auction dates reveal shortened auctions – now taking place over two days at the very most – alongside an appeals process which now aims to finish before the year’s end.
The prequalification submissions window for the T-1 2019/20 and T-4 2022/23 auctions opens on 23 July 2018 and will last for eight weeks. A six-week assessment period will then commence, with would-be participants finding out if they have successfully prequalified on 26 October 2018.
Tier 1 dispute submissions would then be accepted between 29 October and 2 November and then assessed until 16 November.
A secondary, Tier 2 dispute window will then remain open from 19 to 23 November, with National Grid aiming to have settled disputes one way or the other before the year’s end.
That marks a change from previous auctions which have seen disputes heard into January.
The T-1 and T-4 auctions will take place on 29 January and 5 February 2019 respectively, taking place over a maximum of two days each after previous auctions concluded within two days.
Those dates are, however, subject to change owing to being approved by energy secretary Greg Clark later this week. Should they be approved, a final operational plan will be published.
In addition to the streamlined operation of the scheme, National Grid also said it would start an engagement programme for prospective applicants before the submission window starts, allowing around 11 weeks for the system operator to discuss the prequalification process.
It has also pledged to be more consistent and transparent in the process, issuing more detailed guidance which is to be broken down by unit type. This is to be targeted at “problem areas for previous years” and could well broach the topic of de-rating to certain technologies, a factor which proved contentious given its late application to battery storage projects during the last auction.
National Grid’s operations team has also been “enhanced” to handle queries more efficiently.
Invitations for a launch event, pencilled for 10 July 2018, are to be issued shortly.
