Balance agreement
A balance agreement is the contract between Elering and a BRP under which Elering buys or sells the imbalance energy needed to keep the BRP's portfolio in balance each trading period. Without a balance agreement, no commercial activity on the Estonian wholesale electricity market is possible.
A balance agreement (bilansileping) is the contract between Elering and a BRP under which Elering buys or sells the imbalance energy needed to keep the BRP's portfolio in balance each trading period. Without a balance agreement, no commercial activity on the Estonian wholesale electricity market is possible.
What the agreement covers
Three core mechanics: (1) the BRP submits day-ahead and intraday schedules to Elering; (2) at the end of every imbalance settlement period, Elering measures actual flows, compares against schedule, and bills the BRP at the imbalance price for any deviation; (3) Elering provides open supply — covering shortfalls and absorbing surpluses — under the same agreement. The balance agreement is the legal instrument that ties the BRP into the imbalance settlement system.
Prerequisites
Becoming a counterparty to a balance agreement requires: a legal entity registered in Estonia or in an EEA Member State with cross-border equivalence, a financial guarantee (typically a bank guarantee or cash collateral), Datahub integration, sub-metering at imbalance-settlement granularity, and twenty-four-hour operational availability. The Estonian register of active BRPs is short — on the order of ten to fifteen entities — and the bar to join is non-trivial.
Why it matters for aggregators
A small flexibility provider — say, an aggregator running a few hundred home batteries — could in principle hold its own balance agreement, but the operational cost is high. Most aggregators contract with a larger BRP that has the agreement and absorbs the imbalance flow. Volton holds its own balance agreement, which lets it run the BRP/BSP stack end-to-end without an intermediary.
Biežāk uzdotie jautājumi
- What is a balance agreement?
- A balance agreement (bilansileping) is the contract between Elering and a Balance Responsible Party that establishes the BRP's role in the Estonian electricity market. Under it, Elering measures the BRP's actual flows each settlement period, compares them to schedule, and bills the BRP for any deviation at the imbalance price. The agreement is the legal instrument that ties the BRP into the imbalance settlement system.
- Who needs a balance agreement?
- Every entity that wants to be a BRP in Estonia. In practice: every retail electricity supplier, every directly-trading large customer, every aggregator running its own portfolio, every battery operator that wants to settle its own imbalance rather than via a third party. Smaller market participants typically contract with a larger BRP rather than holding their own agreement, because the financial-guarantee and operational requirements are non-trivial.
- What does a balance agreement obligate?
- Three core obligations. (1) The BRP submits day-ahead schedules to Elering specifying its expected position per settlement period. (2) At the end of each period Elering measures actual flows and bills the imbalance volume at the period's imbalance price. (3) Elering provides open supply — covering shortfalls and absorbing surpluses — under the same agreement. Plus financial guarantees, sub-minute metering through Datahub, and 24/7 operational availability.
- What does it take to sign a balance agreement?
- Estonian or EEA legal entity, financial guarantee (typically a bank guarantee or cash collateral, sized to the BRP's expected imbalance exposure), Datahub integration with sub-minute metering granularity, and 24-hour operational availability. The active-BRP register at Elering is short — around 10–15 entities — and onboarding takes several months end to end.