Glossary

Here are the most commonly used terms and abbreviations used in the reserve markets domain.

Acronym	Term	Definition
AOF	Activation Optimization Function	The role to operate the algorithm applied for the optimisation of the activation of Balancing Energy bids within a Coordinated Balancing Area.
BEGCT	Balancing Energy Gate closure time	The point in time when submission or update of a balancing energy bid is no longer permitted
BEGOT	Balancing Energy Gate opening time	The first point in time when submission of a balancing energy bid is permitted
BRP	Balance Responsible Party	A market participant or its chosen representative responsible for its imbalances
BSP	Balancing Services Provider	A market participant with reserve-providing units or reserve-providing groups able to provide balancing services to TSOs
CIM	IEC Common Information Model	A standard for describing information about an electrical network. The European style market profile is a profile derivation from the CIM to harmonize the energy market data exchanges in Europe.
CMOL	Common Merit Order List	A combined list of local balancing energy bid lists (MOL) from each price area maintained by the PICASSO platform
CZC	Cross Zonal Capacity	The cross-zonal transmission capacity between two bidding zones
FAT	Full Activation Time	The period between the activation request by the connecting TSO and the corresponding full delivery of the concerned product
FRCE	Frequency Restoration Control Error	PICASSO platform calculates every optimization cycle a frequency restoration control error for each LFC area. This error acts as an input for the LFC optimization calculation. The sign convention is: positive value where the LFC area is in power surplus and indicates that negative aFRR balancing energy needs to be activated; and negative value where the LFC area is in power deficit and indicates that positive aFRR balancing energy needs to be activated.
ECP	Energy Communication Platform	Reference implementation of MADES standard
ETP	Entso-E Transparency Platform	The ENTSO-E Transparency Platform is an online data platform for European electricity system data
ISP	Imbalance Settlement Period	The time unit for which balance responsible parties’ imbalance is calculated
LFC	Load Frequency Control	A TSO system to maintain reasonably uniform frequency, to divide the load between the generators and to control the tie-line interchange schedules. Receives input from the PICASSO platform and distributes aFRR control signal to BSP’s within the LFC area.
LFC AREA	Load Frequency Control Area	The control area to which the aFRR providing units or aFRR providing groups shall deliver the aFRR standard balancing energy.
LMOL	Local Merit Order List	After the BSP GCT the TSO creates a merit order list consisting of balancing energy bids from the BSP’s in the respectitive LFC area which will be sent to PICASSO platform. Often just referred as MOL.
MADES	Market Data Exchange Standard	Communication IEC standard designed by ENTSO-E
MOL	Merit Order List	A list of balancing energy bids sorted in order of their bid prices, used for the activation of those bids
MTU	Market Time Unit	The period for which the market price is established as a result of PICASSO platform optimization cycle. For PICASSO the MTU is 4 seconds.
CC	Control Cycle	Period in which a single optimization result is calculated in LFC and new control signals (if changed from previous cycle) are sent from TSO to BSP’s
OC	Optimization cycle	Period in which a single optimization result is calculated in PICASSO platform and new FRCE values are sent to each LFC area. Current optimization cycle is 4 seconds, equal to MTU.
TSO	Transmission System Operator	A party that is responsible for a stable power system operation (including the organisation of physical balance) through a transmission grid in a geographical area. In the Nordic synchronous area, there are four TSOs: Svenska kraftnät, Fingrid, Energinet.dk and Statnett.
Connecting TSO	Connecting Transmission System Operator	The TSO that operates the scheduling area in which balancing service providers and balance responsible parties shall be compliant with the terms and conditions related to balancing;
TSO GCT	TSO energy bid submission gate closure time	The latest point in time when a connecting TSO can forward the balancing energy bids received from a balancing service provider to the activation optimisation function
VP	Validity Period	The time period when the balancing energy bid offered by the BSP can be activated, whereas all the characteristics of the product are respected. The amount of time for which a bid is valid and firm. The first validity period of each day begins right at 00:00 market time. Validity periods are consecutive and not overlapping. The length of a single validity period is 15 minutes.