Guide to the Piclo Experience Environment

What are Robo SO competitions?

Our Robot System Operator (Robo SO) is an automated scheduling tool that Flexible Service Providers (FSPs) can interact with as they would a System Operator (SO) in our production environment. The competitions provide a mock mechanism for FSPs to test their API integrations safely within the Experience Environment. Acting as an SO might in production, Robo SO regularly creates competitions and service windows, approves/ rejects bids and creates dispatch instructions to be relayed to FSPs.

How can I start testing

Piclo’s Experience Environment has been set up to enable FSPs to test their integrations with our full suite of Piclo Flex APIs. Get in touch with us at api-support@picloflex.com to request Application Account credentials for the Experience environment, and get started testing. 

What API endpoints will I need?

All of our API endpoint specifications are available to explore via our API Documentation. See “Flex Provider Resources'' for a description of each API available to FSPs. If not already, please read through our Introduction to Piclo APIs document which explains the API user journey for FSPs.

Note that access to some endpoints may be limited by the package purchased and agreed upon in contract with Piclo. Additionally, functionality available to you in our production environment also depends on what your regional DSO or TSO is using Piclo Flex for. For example, if your regional DSO is only using Piclo Flex for procurement of flexibility services (not dispatch or settlement), then our dispatch and settlement APIs will not be relevant for flex services in that region. 

Once you have your credentials, the user journey is:

• Create some Assets (must be in place before qualification closes for any given day. Once created, your assets will qualify into all future competitions)
• Check your Bidding Opportunities (currently requires Assets in Scotland)
• Submit bids
• Subscribe to our `fp_dispatch_instruction_collection` webhook and receive notifications for your dispatch instructions.

For more detailed integration guides, see our Flex Provider tutorials:

• Asset Integration Tutorial
• Bidding Integration Tutorial
• Dispatch Integration Tutorial

What mock competitions will be running?

Currently, Robo SO runs 2 Competitions daily in Scotland, according to the following schedule (all times are in Europe/London timezone):

1st Competition times:

• 08:00: Competition qualification opens.
• 08:00: Competition qualification closes*.
• 08:01: Competition opens.
• 11:00: Competition closes.
• 11:15: Competition bids confirmed and dispatch instructions created**

2nd Competition times:

• 12:00: Competition qualification opens.
• 12:00: Competition qualification closes*.
• 12:01: Competition opens.
• 15:00: Competition closes.
• 15:15: Competition bids confirmed and dispatch instructions created**

* To qualify for a competition, your test assets must have been created before that competition’s qualification closes, and be located in Scotland. Once assets are created, they will be available for all future competitions.

**By default, the results of your bids will be relayed via email, so please ensure we have the relevant email of whomever will be exploring the experience environment. Note that at this point, dispatch instructions will be visible via the UI, or via the webhook collection endpoint described in the Dispatch Integration Tutorial linked above

Further Information

For further information, see our top-level support site at Piclo Flex Support or contact api-support@picloflex.com with any additional queries.