Competition Qualification

Flexibility Service Providers (FSPs) with eligible assets must complete the competition qualification stage to ensure that their intentions are known by the relevant system operator (SO). Make sure to check out the Piclo Academy course on Qualification.

Competition Qualification

FSPs who have assets which have been automatically assessed as eligible by Piclo, need to confirm entry or withdraw from each competition in order to complete the qualification process, and be qualified to bid. Confirming competition entry sends a signal to the SO that you intend to bid.

There are four statuses possible within competition qualification, detailed below: 

• Entered - an FSP confirms they intend to bid into a competition(s).
• Withdraw - an FSP is withdrawing from a competition(s).
• Undecided - this is the default status if neither of the above two choices are saved.
• Not Applicable - this is the state when the asset data isn't complete or the assets don't collectively meet the required aggregate capacity.

How to Complete Competition Qualification:

1. Go to Manage > Qualification. 
2. A list will appear of all competitions in which you have eligible assets.
3. Select the checkbox to the left of a competition, the ‘Withdraw’ and ‘Confirm entry’ buttons at the bottom of the page will then be available to select. Choose the correct button to complete the 'confirm entry status' process.
4. Please note that there is the option to ‘Select/Deselect all’ competitions, should you wish to confirm entry to, or withdraw from, all of the competitions at the same time.
5. Once the decision has been confirmed, the ‘entry status’ for each competition will be updated to either ‘Entered’ or ‘Withdrawn’. If no decision has been confirmed for a competition, its status will remain as 'Undecided' (these three statuses can be seen highlighted in the screenshot below).
6. The entry status can be updated at any time before the qualification closes.Important things to note:

'Not applicable' Status

In some cases, an entry status of ‘not applicable may appear. This is because your aggregated assets do not meet the competition's minimum capacity.

• The 'meet required aggregate' column will indicate what the minimum capacity an aggregated group of assets must provide.
• Should you still wish to participate in the competition, sufficient eligible assets would need to be added to meet the aggregated capacity requirement.
• To check your current eligible assets associated with a competition(s), the eligible/qualified assets file can be downloaded.
• To check why certain assets aren’t appearing for a competition you can navigate to Manage > Qualification > Ineligible/disqualified assets and use the asset grid.

While it doesn't prevent you from confirming entry, it is recommended that you complete your assets data before the qualification closes. The System Operator can, in fact, disqualify your assets if your data are incomplete.

What Happens after Competition Qualification?

• SOs will review all of the eligible assets and change their qualification status depending on other circumstances - for example, if you’re missing a meter ID or that an asset’s ID is incompatible with the competition. You will be made aware if your assets' qualification status has changed.
• Piclo will contact you if the SO needs any additional information about your assets that is not currently captured on Piclo Flex.
• Monitor the asset qualification status as it might change before bidding opens.