ACM comes up with Congestion Management Code Decision

The ACM late last week came up with new ground rules for grid operators to allocate scarce transmission capacity in distribution grids among customers. With grid congestion management, no additional capacity becomes available on the grid, but existing capacity can be better utilized. By making a number of changes to the Electricity Grid Code, the ACM hopes that grid operators will make more use of congestion management.

For example, grid operators can now draw up bilateral long-term agreements with power producers or large users on available flexible capacity. To this end, the ACM is introducing a "capacity curtailment product, making it possible for grid operators to not allow full use of contracted transmission capacity with connected parties in return for payment.

In addition, small market participants can more easily participate in congestion management through the introduction of a congestion management service provider. This service provider acts as an aggregator by offering a joint flex capacity of several smaller companies to the grid operator. This thus makes "group bidding" possible.

Finally, in certain cases, the grid operator can force products or consumers to reduce their demand for transmission by feeding in less or consuming less. For this, however, the grid operator will have to pay a fee.