Course 15 of 20 · Power and Electricity Desk Academy

Ancillary Services & Capacity Markets

Stage D, Specialised products and regional practice. Level 7 of 10.

Ancillary service products and capacity market obligations as a combined revenue and obligation stack.

110 chapters · 11 modules · every chapter one 8 to 10 minute explainer · builds on: Course 03, Course 04, Course 07

Enrol or enquire See the 110 chapters
How a chapter is sized

One chapter is one idea taken to the point of use

Each chapter is a single self-contained explainer of 8 to 10 narrated minutes, covering one idea to the point where you can use it.

Chapters run in order. Each one assumes only what the chapters before it taught, and capability belonging to a later course is named and deferred rather than half-covered.

Curriculum

11 modules · 110 chapters

Open any module for its full chapter list, in teaching order.

M0 What a Desk Sells When It Sells Availability Ch 1-9
  1. The Two Payments a Flexible Unit Earns
  2. The System Operator as a Paying Customer
  3. Why Reliability Will Not Pay for Itself
  4. One Contract, Two Directions of Cash
  5. Who Else Is Bidding Against You
  6. Availability, Utilisation and the Words Between Them
  7. What a Service Commitment Does to an Open Position
  8. Reading a Service Specification Without a Guide
  9. The Route Through This Material
M1 Frequency, Inertia and the Problem Being Bought Ch 10-19
  1. Frequency as the Instantaneous Balance Signal
  2. Inertia and Why the First Seconds Matter
  3. The Largest Credible Loss
  4. Statutory Limits and Operational Targets
  5. The Ladder of Response Timescales
  6. Droop, Deadband and Governor Behaviour
  7. Holding Headroom and Holding Footroom
  8. What Technically Qualifies a Unit
  9. Aggregation and the Portfolio as One Provider
  10. A Frequency Event, Second by Second
M2 The Response and Reserve Product Family Ch 20-30
  1. Mandatory Capability Versus Commercial Service
  2. Containment Response in the First Ten Seconds
  3. Dynamic Services That Respond Continuously
  4. Static Services Armed at a Trigger
  5. Services That Act When Frequency Rises
  6. Spinning and Non-Spinning Reserve
  7. Restoration Reserve and the Slow Tail
  8. Replacement Reserve and the Return to Normal
  9. Demand-Side Response as a Competing Product
  10. Reading Across Two Naming Conventions
  11. Choosing Which Products One Unit Should Offer
M3 Services Beyond Frequency Ch 31-39
  1. Voltage, Reactive Power and Why They Are Bought
  2. Obligatory and Enhanced Reactive Arrangements
  3. Black Start and the Cost of Restarting a Grid
  4. Inertia and Stability Bought as a Service
  5. Constraint Management and Being Paid to Move
  6. System Restoration Planning and the Desk's Part
  7. Islanding and Local Supply Obligations
  8. Where These Services Are Procured Differently
  9. Valuing a Service Only Your Site Can Sell
M4 Procurement, Tenders and Building a Bid Ch 40-50
  1. The Procurement Calendar a Desk Must Keep
  2. Long-Term Tenders and Multi-Year Awards
  3. Day-Ahead and Within-Day Service Auctions
  4. Pay-as-Bid Against a Single Clearing Price
  5. Availability Fees and Utilisation Payments
  6. Stacking Rules and What May Be Sold Twice
  7. Co-optimisation of Energy and Reserve
  8. The Opportunity Cost Floor Under Any Bid
  9. Adding Wear, Fuel and Start Costs to a Bid
  10. Prequalification and Proving You Can Deliver
  11. A Worked Tender Submission
M5 Delivery, Measurement and Being Tested Ch 51-60
  1. From Instruction to Metered Proof
  2. Telemetry, Resolution and Timestamps
  3. The Baseline Problem for a Demand Provider
  4. Response Testing and Witnessed Demonstrations
  5. Performance Factors and Scaled Payment
  6. Non-Delivery, Clawback and Suspension
  7. Declaring Availability and Correcting It
  8. Outages, Maintenance and Holding a Contract Open
  9. Disputing a Measured Failure
  10. A Delivered Event and Its Settlement
M6 The Cost of Standing Ready Ch 61-70
  1. Headroom Is Energy You Agreed Not to Sell
  2. Part-Load Efficiency and the Hidden Burn
  3. Minimum Stable Load as a Binding Constraint
  4. Cycling, Starts and the Maintenance Bill
  5. Hydro and the Water Value of Reserve
  6. The Daily Decision: Sell Energy or Hold Reserve
  7. Reserve Obligations Inside the Delivery Day
  8. Forecast Error and the Risk of Being Called
  9. When Standing Ready Is Worth More Than Running
  10. A Week Priced Both Ways
M7 Capacity Market Architecture Ch 71-81
  1. What a Capacity Market Is Buying
  2. The Reliability Standard Behind the Volume
  3. The Demand Curve the Auction Clears Against
  4. Lead Times and the Four-Year Auction
  5. Descending Clock Auctions in Practice
  6. Price Caps, Floors and Exit Thresholds
  7. Derating Factors and Technology Classes
  8. Agreement Length and Who Gets Fifteen Years
  9. Prequalifying for a Capacity Auction
  10. Secondary Trading of a Capacity Obligation
  11. Who Pays and How the Cost Is Recovered
M8 Living With a Capacity Obligation Ch 82-91
  1. What the Obligation Actually Requires
  2. The Stress Event and the Notice That Starts It
  3. Satisfactory Performance and Annual Testing
  4. Penalties, Monthly Caps and Annual Caps
  5. Over-Delivery and Being Paid for Helping
  6. Termination, Fees and Walking Away
  7. Credit Cover Behind a Capacity Agreement
  8. Holding Energy and Capacity Duties Together
  9. Non-Generation Providers and Their Obligations
  10. A Stress Event Worked End to End
M9 Other Ways Systems Buy Reliability Ch 92-100
  1. Strategic Reserve as an Out-of-Market Answer
  2. Mothballing, Closure Notices and Must-Run Contracts
  3. Reliability Options and Paying Back the Spike
  4. Energy-Only Markets and the Case Against Capacity
  5. Targeted Procurement for a Local Shortfall
  6. Subsidy Rules and Why Designs Differ
  7. Emissions Limits on Who May Hold an Obligation
  8. Comparing Two Reliability Designs on One Fleet
  9. Reading a Mechanism You Have Never Seen
M10 The Combined Stack, a Worked Year and the Limits Ch 101-110
  1. Assembling the Full Revenue Stack on One Unit
  2. Where the Stack Contradicts Itself
  3. Double Counting and the Rules Against It
  4. Budgeting a Delivery Year Before It Starts
  5. The Worked Year: Quarters One and Two
  6. The Worked Year: A Cold Snap in Quarter Four
  7. Reconciling the Year Against the Budget
  8. What a Flexibility Desk Reports Upward
  9. What a Flexibility Revenue Forecast Cannot Promise
  10. Carrying the Flexibility Stack Forward

The brochure gives each of these 110 chapters a paragraph on what it covers and what you can do once you have worked through it.

This is course 15 of twenty

It stands alone, and it is also the entry point to the Power and Electricity Desk Academy pathway.

Enrol or enquire See the whole pathway