This release presents the terms for participation in the call for tenders for the contracting of 1500 MW of capacity that can be activated on the balancing mechanism for the period from 1 January to 31 December 2020.

Following a phase of discussions and public consultation on the terms and conditions for the call for tenders 2020 conducted in the first half of 2019, RTE submitted a draft text for approval of the CRE on 21 May 2019. These terms were approved by the CRE in the deliberation of 25 June 2019.

The major changes from the terms implemented for 2019 active contracts are the following (further information in the supporting document of the submission available on the website concerte.fr):

• Removal of products with a mobilisation lead time of 9 minutes or less (and bonus for bid classifications and selections) and replacement with a product with a minimum usage period of 15 minutes or less (with a bonus for bid classifications and selections) for products with a maximum usage period greater than or equal to 90 minutes;
• Changes to the bid usage conditions for mFRR RR products with maximum usage period of 60 minutes or less: the minimum usage period must be less than or equal to 15 minutes;
• Reduction of the bonus for bid classifications and selections, symmetrically with the penalty of 5 €/MW/day;
• Relaxation of the requirements for approval of sites termed "outside of perimeter": if the characteristics of a balancing entity to be approved are identical to that of balancing entity already approved but belonging to the perimeter of another participant, the participant wishing to approve this balancing entity will now require only one activation test instead of 5 (or even 10);
• Introduction of new approval procedures: division of an already approved balancing entity (in addition to the merging procedure), merging of sites from different balancing entities;
• Relaxation of the periodic testing procedure which enables a mFRR RR approval to be maintained in order to take into account the technical availability of capacities;
• Changes to the penalties:
  • taking into account the product at a minimum usage period of 15 minutes or less (to replace the penalty regarding the 9 minute mobilisation lead time);
  • adaptation of penalties in the event the failure is related to the execution of a framework contract prior to day-ahead;
  • taking into account the evolution of the model for remunerating balancing operations and the option for a participant to send a final dispatch schedule provided for in the MA-RE Terms and Conditions v9;
• Potential in the course of 2020 to sign an addendum to the 2020 contract in order to implement day-ahead contracting such as that imposed in the new electricity regulation set to enter into force on 1 January 2020.

Timeline of the consultation