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Home All news items {{item}} {{item.label}} Manual frequency restoration reserve and replacement reserve: launch of the call for tenders 2021 {{vm.currentItem}}

From 26 June to 27 July 2020, RTE is opening the consultation for manual frequency restoration and replacement reserves 2021.

This release presents the terms for participation in the call for tenders for the contracting of 1000 MW of capacity that can be activated on the balancing mechanism for the period from 1 January to 31 December 2021.

Following a phase of discussions and public consultation on the terms and conditions for the call for tenders 2021 conducted in the first half of 2020, RTE submitted a draft text for approval of the CRE on 12 May 2020. These terms were approved by the CRE in the deliberation of 18 June 2020.

For this consultation, RTE worked on converting the manual frequency restoration and replacement reserve contract into rules. To participate in the consultation, candidates will need to sign an agreement to participate in the rules on manual frequency restoration and replacement reserves.

The transition into rules will alleviate the administrative process involved in the submission of bids for the annual call for tenders. With respect to the consultation response process, the statement of interest phase was also removed to streamline the consultation.

Furthermore, in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2019/943 of 5 June 2019 on the internal market for electricity, from 2021 RTE must contract part of its need through a daily call for tender. RTE is therefore announcing that in 2021, 500 MW of its need will be covered by a daily call for tenders. This daily call for tenders is now scheduled to be implemented by 1 January 2021. However, due to the health crisis, delays in the developments required to set up daily contracting mean that RTE cannot guarantee the launch of this daily contracting by 1 January 2021. In the event that it is not possible to start the contract by this deadline, RTE will cover the missing need through an additional call for tenders to be held at the end of 2020.

Finally, changes have been made to the contract conditions and provision of manual frequency restoration and replacement reserve capacities in to 2020. The main developments are the following (more information in the accompanying report of the referral available on the website concerte.fr):

  • Simplifications of the number of tender products: there is now only one manual frequency restoration reserve product and one replacement reserve product.
  • The approval of capacities has been completely reviewed: approval will now be on a declarative basis with the possibility for RTE to test Balancing Entities under real conditions when they are committed in order to ensure their reliability. A mechanism for growing temporal suspension is implemented in the event of a failure.
  • The failure and penalty regimes have been streamlined and reworked, particularly concerning failure on activation, which has been completely reviewed.
    The bonus for bid classifications for products with a minimum usage period of less than or equal to 15 minutes is to be renewed temporarily for the year 2021, pending contracting by a dedicated call for tenders.

Timeline of the consultation

 

The contract will be awarded through an open call for tenders. In addition, compared to previous consultations, the declaration of interest stage prior to the submission of tenders has been removed.

In addition to the conditions specified in the rules and in the consultation regulation, and in particular the need for physical balancing capacities in mainland France, the tenderer is a signatory or undertakes to sign the participation agreements in manual frequency restoration and replacement reserves, giving it balancing service provider status by 27 July 2020.

Consultation file

The consultation file includes the following elements:

  • Rules relating to manual frequency restoration and replacement reserves.
  • Tender regulation.
  • Annexes relating to the setup of an observability system.

In addition, RTE publishes a reference document on its website specifying the procedures for selecting mFRR/RR bids and data on activations of Balancing Entities committed to mFRR/RR for the 2019 year.

Contacts

For any queries, please contact nicolas.valentin@rte-france.com (RTE Purchasing Division) and eric.sainton@rte-france.com (RTE Sales Division).

 

June 26, 2020