Adding and Managing Competitions

The following instructions and guidance are for System operators (SO) who need to add, edit or manage competitions via the competitions file. For SOs interested in running a visibility only competition, please refer to the visibility only competitions support article. 

Downloading the Competition 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

There are four sheets within the file which will be explained below:

Tab 1 - README : Once the competition file has been downloaded, open it and read the first sheet “README”.  This will provide guidance on how to populate the competition file. 

Tab 2 - Competitions : This is used to set the structure of the competitions that will be run on Piclo. Please note that It is advisable to use a naming convention for the Competition Ref, as they can't be re-used and are the unique identifier for all data associated with a competition.

Tab 3 - Competition Boundaries : This is how a SO adds a bounding area to the competition. There are multiple methods to do this however one of the simplest way of pre-loading area information is via a GeoPackage file. Read about how to pre-load boundary data in the GeoPackage file.

Tab 4 - Service Windows : Allows the SO to populate details of the flexibility service associated with each competition. Service windows are set within service periods for example a service period called ‘Summer 2024’ (from 1st April 2024 until 30th September 2024) can have a weekday morning window of 9am - 11am Monday - Friday and a weekday evening window 6pm - 10pm. There is no limit to the number of service periods or service windows a competition can have. 

Fixed Data Input Fields

Within the file on the competition sheet there are a number of fixed data inputs. The below list describes the current options available. If additional options are required, please contact support@piclo.energy

• Power Type 
  • Active Power
  • Reactive Power
• Need Type
  • Post Fault
  • Pre Fault
  • Reinforcement Deferral
  • Compliance
  • Other
• Need Direction
  • Deficit (Active Power)
  • Excess (Active Power)
  • Import (Reactive Power)
  • Export (Reactive Power)
• Product Type
  • Sustain
  • Secure
  • Dynamic
  • Restore
• Connection kV
  • 0.24
  • 0.4
  • 6.6
  • 11
  • 22
  • 33
  • 66
  • 132
• Competition Type
  • Availability & Utilisation
  • Utilisation
  • Service Fee
  • Capacity 
• Fixed Price Competition
  • True
  • False
• Public Holiday Handling
  • Include
  • Exclude
  • (Default is Ignore)

Upload a Competition File

Once you’ve completed all required edits and ensured your competition file is accurate and up to date, follow the steps below to upload it to the Piclo platform:

1. Log in to your Piclo account and navigate to Manage > Competitions.
2. In the ‘Upload files’ section, click ‘Choose file’ to select and upload your completed competition file.

3. The file will begin processing automatically. Please allow a few minutes for this to complete.

   Once processing is complete, a new row will appear in the File History table. Pay close attention to the following columns:

   • Created – the number of new competitions successfully created
   • Error – any issues found in the file
   • Updated – competitions that were modified based on your upload
   • Unchanged – competitions that matched existing data and were not altered
4. Successfully created competitions will now appear on your dashboard.

Troubleshooting Errors

If the number of created, updated, or unchanged competitions does not align with the data in your uploaded file, it is likely due to one or more errors. To review and resolve these:

1. Check the 'Errors' column in the File History table for any issues.
2. Click the ‘View’ button next to the relevant file entry. This will expand a dropdown showing details for any rows that contain errors.
3. Review the error messages carefully. Each message corresponds to a specific row in your uploaded competition file.
4. Cross reference the row number in the error message with the row in your original competition file to identify and understand the issue.
5. Apply the suggested corrections as outlined in the error messages.

Once all necessary corrections have been made:

6. Save the updated file as a new version.
7. Return to Manage > Competitions and re upload the corrected file following the standard upload process.

Should the errors persist or it’s not clear what the resolution is, please do contact support@picloflex.com for support. 

How to Archive a Competition

Deleting a row in the competition file will not delete the competition. If you do wish for a competition to no longer appear on the map, you will need to archive the competition. To do this please follow the below steps:

1. Go to Manage > Competitions > Download existing competitions. 
2. Once the competition file has opened, go to the ‘Competition’ sheet and navigate to the archive date in column R to populate the desired date and times.
3. Please also ensure that the competition open and close dates are adjusted to be before the archive date.
4. Re-upload the file to archive the competition 

Service Windows

Should you wish to upload custom availability hours per service window, you can do so, by opening the 'service window' tab and navigate to the 'Available Hours Override' column (U). If this field is not amended, the availability hours per service window will display the entire service period as default.