BSC Changes impacting a Virtual Lead Party
This page shows which Modifications and Change Proposals have been identified as impacting a Virtual Lead Party. Please note that the assessment of where impacts may affect certain roles within the electricity market may be amended during the course of the Change process.
P451 ‘Updating BSC Black Start provisions and compensation arrangements’
P451 seeks to facilitate the implementation of NGESO’s new approach to Black Start, termed System Restoration. In doing so, it proposes to update all BSC references to “Black Start” to “System Restoration”, and enable contracted Restoration Service Providers who are non-BSC parties to claim BSC Black Start compensation.
You can join the P451 Workgroup as a voting member, a non-voting member or be added to the Workgroup mailing list. To sign-up, please fill out this form.
P417: Move credit templates and insurance products to the BSC Website
[page teaser field]This Modification seeks to remove the Letter of Credit templates and Approved Insurance Product requirements from annexes M1 – M4 of the BSC. The Modification also seeks to place a requirement on Elexon to publish the Letter of Credit templates and Approved Insurance Product requirements on the BSC Website.
P415 ‘Facilitating access to wholesale markets for flexibility’
Customers (consumers of electricity) who are able to be flexible about their consumption cannot currently obtain any value from that flexibility from the Wholesale Energy Market, except if they work with their Supplier to do so. This is because the BSC assigns all flexibility delivered by a customer to their Supplier, with the exception of flexibility instructed by National Grid in the Balancing Mechanism or Replacement Reserve market (TERRE), which can be assigned to a third party (referred to in the BSC as a “Virtual Lead Party”).
As a result, customers can only access power exchanges (and other markets that require notification of contracts under the BSC) though their Supplier. This contrasts with Balancing Services, the Balancing Mechanism, and the Capacity Market, all of which allow a customer’s flexibility to be offered by an aggregator without the involvement of the Supplier.