Imbalance price

The imbalance price is what a Balance Responsible Party pays or receives for any deviation between its scheduled and actual electricity position in each settlement period. Under Article 55 of the Electricity Balancing Guideline (Commission Regulation (EU) 2017/2195), Estonia and the rest of the EU apply single imbalance pricing — one price per direction per 15-minute settlement period, derived from the marginal balancing-energy bids activated through MARI and PICASSO.

The imbalance price is what a Balance Responsible Party pays or receives for any deviation between its scheduled and actual electricity position in each settlement period. It is set per imbalance price area per settlement period under Article 55 of the Electricity Balancing Guideline (Commission Regulation (EU) 2017/2195).

Single pricing

EBGL Article 55 prescribes single imbalance pricing as the EU default: one price per direction per settlement period, applied symmetrically. This replaces the older "dual pricing" model in which surplus and shortage settled at different prices. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania all operate single pricing, harmonised with the rest of the EU.

How the price is derived

The imbalance price reflects the cost of the activated balancing energy that closed the system imbalance for that period. In upward-imbalance periods (system short of energy) the price anchors to the marginal mFRR or aFRR bid activated through MARI / PICASSO; downward-imbalance periods anchor to the marginal downward bid. There is no fixed ex-ante price — the imbalance price is the market outcome.

Estonian context

Elering and the Baltic TSOs publish the imbalance price on the Baltic Transparency Dashboard once each 15-minute settlement period closes. Since Estonia joined MARI on 9 October 2024 and PICASSO on 9 April 2025, Baltic prices have repeatedly hit ±10 000 €/MWh — the platform price cap — driven mostly by mFRR scarcity events.

Sources

EBGL Article 55 · Elering: Balancing service fees · Baltic Transparency Dashboard

Usein kysyttyä

What is the imbalance price?

The imbalance price is the per-MWh charge or credit a Balance Responsible Party (BRP) settles for any deviation between its scheduled and actual electricity position in a 15-minute Market Time Unit. Under EU single pricing (EBGL Article 55), the same reference price applies to long and short BRPs in a given MTU, derived from the area-based marginal balancing-energy price plus or minus the monthly neutrality component.

How is the imbalance price calculated in Estonia?

Per Elering's terms and conditions, when DSB is +1 the reference is the area-based downward marginal price minus the monthly neutrality component; when DSB is −1 it is the upward marginal price plus the neutrality component. Marginal prices come from MARI (mFRR) and PICASSO (aFRR) clearing. If no balancing energy was activated, the reference falls back to the value of avoided activation, capped under EBGL Article 30.

What's the difference between single and dual imbalance pricing?

Single pricing applies one reference price to both long and short BRPs in a given MTU — the standard EU approach since EBGL Article 55. Dual pricing applies different prices to long and short positions, reinforcing the imbalance penalty. The EU defaults to single pricing; member-state regulators can authorise dual pricing for specific MTUs only with ACER notification.

Why does the imbalance price differ from the day-ahead spot price?

The day-ahead price clears the wholesale auction at noon for next-day delivery; the imbalance price reflects real-time costs of correcting forecast errors. The two diverge whenever the system needed energy at a different price than the auction predicted — typically every MTU. The imbalance price is the spot price plus or minus the cost of the activated balancing bid, plus the neutrality component.

Where can I see Estonia's imbalance price live?

Volton publishes the live Estonian imbalance price at /data/imbalance-price (15-minute resolution, updated as MTUs settle). The Baltic Transparency Dashboard publishes the per-MTU imbalance price for all three Baltic countries alongside the DSB, neutrality component and underlying balancing-energy reference prices.