The main four-year-ahead (T-4) auction, which will take place on 6 December, has been set a target buy of 51.7GW. The figure is down slightly on the 52GW target set out by former energy secretary Amber Rudd in an open letter to the delivery body in July.
The target for the early year-ahead auction (EA) has also been has also been dropped slightly from 53.8GW to 53.6GW. The auction was first proposed by the government in March to bring an end to the Contingency Balancing Reserve (CBR) a year early, and was officially adopted in May following a consultation. It will take place on 31 January 2017.
The target for the transitional arrangements auctions (TA), which is dedicated to demand-side response, is unchanged at 300MW. The auction is scheduled for 22 March 2017.
Eligible participants will be able to prequalify for all three auctions, although they will not be able to secure concurrent agreements for both the EA and TA auctions or the T-4 and TA auctions. National Grid said DSR provided by increasing generation, as opposed to reducing demand, will not be eligible to take part in the TA auction. The minimum threshold for the provision DSR has been lowered from 2MW to 500kW.
In its final report before being disbanded the Energy and Climate Change Committee argued last month that the capacity market needs a “redesign” to open it up to DSR and storage. It urged the government to get rid of “outdated” rules which it said were discouraging disruptive technologies from taking part.