Adding and Editing Planned Assets

This article describes how to add or update Planned assets for Flexibility Service Providers.

If you're adding or editing operational or in development assets, please see Adding and Editing Assets. 

A Planned Asset can be added by a Flexibility Service Provider to any open competition. A Planned Asset is design to allow Flexibility Service Providers to win contracts for flexibility services, before it is certain that an asset will ever become operational, and thus when less information is known about the planned asset(s).

This differs from an In Development asset, which should be used for assets which are certain to be Operational in the future. See the Asset Status, Type and Capacity article for more information.

For this reason, Planned Assets in Piclo look and behave differently than Operational and In Development Assets. Planned Assets:

• require less asset data
• can describe 'groups' of similar, future assets in a single Piclo asset
• don't have a precise location, rather, they are linked to the competition where the capacity is likely to be located
• are only visible on the Map when clicking the competition that they are associated with

Each System Operator will qualify and treat Planned Assets differently. Consult the System Operator's specific guidance online for further information.

When competitions are removed from the platform, the planned assets associated will no longer be visible on the map, but will be accessible within the Planned Assets tab of the Asset Upload template.

Downloading the Asset Template

1. Go to the Manage > Assets
2. To upload new assets, download the latest template by selecting "Download latest template"
3. To view and edit existing assets, select the download button next to "Download existing assets", located in the top right hand corner. 

Input Asset Data

1. Open the file you downloaded, and read the "READ ME" section on tab one before modifying the spreadsheet.
   • Fill in all the required details (one row per asset) and/or edit any assets that require editing, and save the file as xlsx.
   1. Each column has a description of the data required, the type of data required, and whether the field is Required or Optional.
   2. Only a small number of fields are Required. Assets with only the required fields populated can become eligible for competitions.
   3. To qualify for competitions, System Operators may require you to complete all Optional fields on the template. Please complete this information as soon as possible, if you intend to participate in System Operator competitions.
   4. Please see the asset status, type and capacity help article for guidance on these three fields.

Upload Asset File

When you are complete with the spreadsheet, return to your Piclo account and upload your file via the ‘choose file’ button.

Once the file has finished processing (this can take a few minutes), a new row will appear in the file history table. Each row corresponds to an asset in your original file, and the errors from each uploaded row can be seen by expanding the table with the 'View' button.

When a file is uploaded with errors, a red message appears. Click the link "Download asset errors summary" to download a file containing only the assets that contain errors. You can re-upload the same errors file, in the same way as the regular Asset Upload template any number of times, until you have corrected the errors.

Troubleshooting Errors

• If fewer assets appear on the map than expected, you may have some assets which errored, and did not upload.
  • Use the File History table to see how many errors occured, and where.
  • Press 'View' to expand the table and see what caused an error in each row of your original file.
  • Alternatively, download the Asset Errors Summary file, which appears in the red box when errors are created, and re-uploaded your correct Asset Errors Summary file in the same way as the regular Asset Upload template
  • Note - the row numbers in the File History table correspond to your original file, not your errors file.
• If errors persist or it’s not clear what the solution is, do contact support@picloflex.com for help. 

Top Tips for Uploading 

• Deleting a row in your file, will not delete the asset(s) within the Piclo platform, instead, you should archive your asset.
  • Archive your asset by re-uploading it with an Archived status in Column E of the Asset Upload template.
• The 'Competition Ref' (Column C- Target Competition) is required to identify the target competition for your planned assets.
  • The competition ref can be found via the live competition data, available to download at the top right hand corner of the map page.
• If you want to change the asset ref of an asset, please copy the old asset ref name into column AH, ‘previous asset ref’.
• Then type the new name into column C, ‘asset ref’.
• Each asset ref must be unique and will cause an error should the same asset ref be used for two assets, even if one of those assets is archived.
• Only 5,000 rows of assets can be uploaded in a single file.
  • For larger data sets, please use Piclo's Assets API or split your dataset into smaller files.

What happens once a competition closes?

Planned assets are linked to only an active competition round and a specific competition zone. Once the specific competition has closed, the relevant planned assets associated to it will automatically be archived. If a FSP should ever wish to use the same planned asset details again, the details can be found in the existing assets file and adjusted to the next competition round.

What happens when planned assets win bids?

If Planned Asset(s) successfully win contract(s), the System Operator will contact you with next steps, depending on whether the assets will be utilised using Piclo's Operations module or outside of Piclo Flex.

Please visit the Piclo academy to watch a tutorial on planned assets.