Asset Status, Type and Capacity
This information is for Flexibility Service Providers (FSPs) looking for assistance with inputting data into the asset file. Please visit Piclo Academy to take the course on Assets to learn more.
In this article
Asset Status
System Operators use your asset status during qualification to determine whether your asset is right for their network need.
- In Development
- An asset that is in the process of being contracted, built or installed, and is certain to be Operational in the future.
- Assets which are speculative, and not certain to be Operational can be added as Planned Assets. See Adding and Editing Planned Assets for more.
- Operational
- An asset that is ready to provide flexibility.
- Mothballed
- An asset that no longer provides flexibility, but could be brought back into an operational status.
- Archived
- An asset that should be removed from Piclo. Archived assets will disappear from the map and will cease to be visible to either the FSP or SO. They have not been deleted, and can be unarchived by changing their status in the asset file and re-uploading.
Piclo recommends adding all assets you control, as you will get notified of market opportunities in any location that you have an asset.
If the file template does not cover the type or status of your asset, please contact support@picloflex.com.
Asset Category and Type
Piclo is agnostic to different types of flexibility. As long as the asset can respond to an instruction to turn-up or turn-down electricity generation or demand, it can be uploaded and become eligible for competitions of the appropriate grid need.
The asset template includes a wide range of asset categories and types, which can be seen below:
- Storage
- Battery
- Compressed air
- Fuel cells
- Liquid air
- Pumped hydro
- Vehicle to grid
- Energy efficiency
- Demand side response
- Commercial
- Industrial
- Residential
- Vehicle charging
- Air source heat pump
- Ground source heat pump
- Hybrid Heat pump
- Flexible Site Demand
- Interconnectors
- Low Carbon
- Gas + Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS)
- Nuclear
- Renewable
- Advanced Conversion Technology (ACT)
- Advanced Conversion Technology (ACT) CHP
- Anaerobic Digestion
- Anaerobic digestion CHP
- Biogas CHP
- Biomass
- Biomass CHP
- Biofuel - Other
- Hydro
- Landfill gas
- Offshore wind
- Onshore wind
- Sewage
- Sewage CHP
- Solar PV
- Tidal
- Waste
- Waste CHP
- Wave
- Thermal
- Brown coal/lignite
- Coal CHP
- Combined Cycle Gas Turbine (CCGT)
- Diesel
- Diesel reciprocating engines
- Fossil - Oil shale
- Fossil - Other
- Fossil - Peat
- Fuel oil
- Gas
- Gas CHP
- Gas reciprocating engines
- Gas + Oil
- Hard coal
- Hydrogen
- Non-Fossil Fuel CHP
- Non-Fossil Fuel Turbine Boiler
- Open Cycle Gas Turbine (OCGT)
Flexibility Capacity
Piclo’s asset file includes six flexible capacity fields. It is important to enter capacity information as accurately as possible, as capacity is a criteria which determines whether your asset is eligible for a competition or not. See Asset Qualification for details.
Although each capacity field is not required, at least one capacity field must be populated for an asset to be uploaded.
Asset capacity in Piclo is flexible capacity, and denotes the capacity of an asset to modify its behaviour relative to its baseline behaviour. This differs from the nameplate capacity of an asset, which is the total capacity of a site or asset.
The six capacity fields, and their aggregations in the platform, are:
- Active Generation Turn Up (MW)
- The capacity of your asset to increase its generation output of active power.
- Active Demand Turn Down (MW)
- The capacity of your asset to reduce its demand of active power.
- Active Generation Turn Down (MW)
- The capacity, in MW, of your asset to reduce its generation output.
- Active Demand Turn Up (MW)
- The capacity of your asset to increase its demand of active power.
- Reactive Export Capacity (MVar)
- The capacity that an asset has to generate reactive power: providing an inductive load and lagging effect on current with respect to the network voltage.
- Reactive Import Capacity (MVar)
- The capacity that an asset has to absorb reactive power: providing a capacitive load and leading effect on current with respect to the network voltage.
Not all assets can provide actions in a given direction, so multiple options are provided to simplify the provider experience.
Planned assets can choose to specify whether they can provide only one action type (e.g. Active Demand Turn Down), or both (e.g. Active Generation Turn Up / Demand Turn Down). For Planned Assets, an asset providing both or only one action in a direction is handled in the same manner in the platform, and providing either does not affect your ability to qualify in any way. For example, an asset with 2MW of Demand Turn Down is identical to 2MW of Active Demand Turn Down / Generation Turn Up. The difference in fields is purely informational to the System Operator.
Aggregation of Active Capacity
The data provided in the four active power fields are summed together to produce the assets' Active Import and Active Export capacity. These are the capacity directions used in all other parts of the system, and are summed as follows:
- Active Export
- = Active Demand Turn Down + Active Generation Turn Up
- Active Import
- = Active Demand Turn Up + Active Generation Turn Down
Consider the following hypothetical asset below, as an illustration. This asset is usually demanding 2MW of power from the system, but it can turn down its demand and also turn up its generation for a given time, which creates a total Active Export capacity for this asset of 3MW.
This asset's baseline capacity is demanding 2MW from the network. When the asset stops demanding 2MW, and also generates 1MW, the total sum of these actions (Demand Turn Down and Generation Turn Up) is the total Active Export capacity of the asset at that time.