Visibility-Only Competitions

Visibility-only competitions can be run using Piclo Flex. This article will offer an overview of why to use visibility-only competitions and how they work. For full details on how competitions work on Piclo Flex, please see adding and managing competitions. 

What is a Visibility-Only Competition?

A visibility-only competition is a competition where a bidding window is not required on Piclo Flex, and therefore does not have any competition open or close dates. The competition type requirement is also not required. 

Why Use Visibility-Only Competitions?

Establishing an active flexibility market - a visibility-only competition round will allow a new system operator (SO) to understand internal processes needed to publish flexibility requirements, how effective flexibility products are at addressing network constraints and learning how to attract the appropriate volume of flexible service providers (FSPs) to the market. 

To procure a service for unexpected faults or maintenance - a visibility-only competition round can assist in procuring FSPs for a dynamic service. This is an optional service where FSPs can choose whether to deliver upon receiving requests from the SO. This service is often more likely to be used with short term time scales (typically a day ahead or within the same day). 

How to Create a Visibility-Only Competition

Download the competition file template

1. Navigate to Manage > Competitions 
2. To upload new competitions, download the latest template by selecting ‘download latest template’
3. To view and edit existing competition data, select the ‘download existing competition’ button.

Input competition data

Details on each sheet within the competition file can be located within the adding and managing competitions support article. Please see details below which are only specific to adding and managing a visibility-only competition: 

• For a visibility-only competition, you must not populate the competition open and close data fields (columns P & Q) or the competition type field (column S). 
• The competition window will be displayed as the following on the dashboard (map)