NGED/ Market Gateway overview

Flexibility Service Providers can now use Piclo Flex to participate in National Grid Electricity Distribution's (NGED) January sustain competitions via an integration with the Market Gateway platform without having to maintain account and asset data across both platforms.

To participate in NGED competitions, the information below provides you with an overview of the steps involved.

Registration

If you are not yet registered with Piclo Flex, please create an account, go to picloflex.com and select the ‘register’ button in the top navigation bar and complete the forms.

As part of this process, you can create a user login (email, password etc.) and a Flexibility Service Provider (FSP) organisation account by providing registered company information. If there are multiple companies, please use the parent company information provided on the form.

You will need to accept the user terms for yourself, and the service terms on behalf of the company. 

What if I already have a Market Gateway account?

If you already have an account and asset data within Market Gateway, please contact Piclo Support at support@picloflex.com so that we can assist you further.

Company Qualification (DPS)

Once you've registered on Piclo Flex, the next step is to complete the company qualification, also referred to as DPS. The application is called "National Grid Electricity Distribution" [link] or you can navigate to it via the competition on the map or the manage menu.

• Navigate to Manage > Applications > National Grid Electricity Distribution
• Click apply (top right) and complete the company qualification application. If you wish to finish completing the application at a later stage, please select 'save' and 'continue' at the bottom of each section. This will save any information provided so that you can come back to it at a later stage.
• The application includes a specific data consent question. This is required for Piclo to synch your data between the Piclo Flex and Market Gateway on your behalf. To learn more please visit the SO profile page for National Grid Electricity Distribution.
• After submission of the company qualification application, your answers will be transferred to Market Gateway where NGED will be assessing your application. You will receive emails from both systems about the outcome of your application.
• If the company qualification is rejected, there will be an opportunity to review and re-submit the application via Piclo Flex.

Asset Qualification

NGED will only qualify operational assets. You can upload or change asset information at any time prior to bidding.

To upload new assets and or edit existing assets;

1. Navigate to Manage > Assets and 'download the latest template' to add new assets or 'download existing assets' to change or remove existing assets in the platform.
2. Fill in all the required data points (one row per asset) and/or edit any assets that require editing, and save the file as xlsx. NGED competitions have additional asset data requirements that need to be provided: Asset Scale, Metering Point and Import Meter ID.
3. If your company qualification is approved and assets are within the correct location, at the correct voltage and have the compatible capacity, the assets will be qualified to bid.

Bidding

For NGED’s upcoming January sustain competitions the following bidding rules must be followed. Please be aware, these rules will not be validated within Piclo Flex, so please ensure they have been adhered to before finalising your bids.

1. Provide baseline prior to bidding. Bidding will open 12th Feb 2024. Prior to bidding participating Flexibility Service Providers will need to supply baseline data using a link (look out for emails from Piclo) to ensure their bids will be considered.
2. No asset specific bidding. By default all qualified assets within a competitions zone will be automatically grouped for purposes of submitting a bid. Please do not use asset specific bidding using the “edit included assets” function and no "split bids".

3. Bid price must be the same for both AM and PM service windows. If you are bidding for a competition, please ensure to enter the same price for both AM and PM service windows.

   
   

How to submit and edit bids?

1. To submit bids, navigate to Manage > Bids > Submit new bids and select the competition to bid into.
2. Bid with all your assets and apply the same price for both AM and PM service windows, once finished, click 'Finish bidding'
3. To edit bids, navigate to Manage > Bids > Edit active bids. You can edit your bids any time before bidding closes.