Introduction of the BSP and BRP actor roles
As of May 1, 2024, the role of balancing service provider has been split into two new actor roles, BSP and BRP.
- Balancing Service Provider (BSP): A market participant with approved pre-qualified entities or groups that can offer ancillary services to Svenska kraftnät in the form of FCR, aFRR and mFRR.
- Balance Responsible Party (BRP): A market participant that is financially responsible for ensuring that the same amount of electricity is injected into the national electricity system as is withdrawn at the connection points for which the participant has balance responsibility. The responsibility applies per bidding zone.
In May 2023, the Energy Markets Inspectorate decided on the terms and conditions for the actor roles.
Status of implementation of an independent BSP role
Svenska kraftnät has presented a new timetable for when the roles of BSP and BRP can be expected to be fully implemented at the latest. The timetable has been presented in the context of the response to an injunction from the Swedish Energy Markets Inspectorate, on 1 October 2024. Svenska kraftnät's ambition is to continuously explore alternative solutions that bring forward the implementation.
Svenska kraftnät has strived to implement the conditions according to legal requirements already from May 1, 2024, but has encountered challenges in crucial IT systems along the way, which has complicated the progress and delayed the full-scale implementation.
Overall, based on the conditions now known by Svenska kraftnät, a full implementation of the BSP/BRP model with an independent BSP role is expected to be completed by 2028 at the latest, see figure below.
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Svenska kraftnät will continuously investigate alternative ways to speed up the implementation. If the alternatives are applied, the timetable will be adjusted based on the new conditions.
Svenska kraftnät sees that it may be relevant to implement temporary solutions, provided that they are appropriate and that the time gain is significant. The work will therefore be carried out in close dialog with market participants to ensure the above.
Information about the changes will be published regularly on this page and via news publications on svk.se (in Swedish only). Follow us by subscribing to the news category “Electricity market in general” ("Elmarknad allmänt").
*Read the news from October 8, 2024 (in Swedish only).
The current model
In May 2024, as a first step, the roles BSP and BRP were introduced by dividing the previous role of balance responsible into two new roles with separate agreements between Svenska kraftnät and the market participants. The following is clarifying information about the division of the balance responsibility agreement into the BSP agreement and the BRP agreement.
- To be able to sign a BSP agreement, the market participant must have signed a BRP agreement and be BRP at the points where ancillary services are to be supplied. In addition, other steps to start delivering support services, such as pre-qualification and relevant tests, must have been completed.
- How to start delivering support services or expand your delivery of support services is described here: Contribute FCR, aFRR or mFRR.
- BSP is the actor role responsible for the delivery of ancillary services to Svenska kraftnät. Contracts/agreements between BSP and any subcontractor are made on a civil law basis as before with a balance responsible.
Implementation of an independent BSP role
Svenska kraftnät is working on the implementation of the terms and conditions in accordance with the Swedish Energy Markets Inspectorate's decision where the BSP role is independent from the BRP role. The information below refers to when the implementation of the decided BSP and BRP conditions is fully implemented.
The change increases the possibility for more people to contribute
The implementation of the BSP and BRP conditions creates the conditions for an independent player to use flexibility to deliver ancillary services without being a BRP itself. This in turn contributes to increased competition and well-functioning balancing markets and, in the long term, more efficient use of the electricity system and its resources.
Aggregation, imbalance adjustment and verification
The introduction of an independent BSP will enable a more flexible aggregation of resources. A BSP will be able to submit bids with resources belonging to the portfolios of different BRPs.
In order to leave each BRP unaffected by the actions of a specific BSP, the imbalance adjustment will be based on the actual delivered activated volume (verified delivery) from each BSP.
Work on how to verify the delivery from the BSP is ongoing.
How can you as an operator influence?
During the implementation of the terms and conditions, Svenska kraftnät will involve stakeholders to get input on solutions and to have a dialog on various issues.
Stakeholders are always welcome to provide input and ask questions via e-mail, see e-mail address under Contact below.
Dialogue through stakeholder meetings and discussion groups for in-depth discussions
Dialogue will take place, among other things, through open stakeholder meetings. Upcoming meetings will be announced via news publication and on the “Meet Svenska kraftnät” page. Svenska kraftnät has also established discussion groups linked to the implementation of the BSP and BRP roles. All these meetings will be conducted in Swedish. Read more about these meetings here.
Contact us
If you have any questions regarding the implementation of the new roles, please contact us by e-mail: bsp_brp@svk.se