Since the new SEM go-live on 1 Oct 2018, a topic of heated discussion has been the volatility and extreme prices seen so far in the Balancing Market (BM) including very high prices and a greater than expected incidence of negative balancing prices.
The highest prices seen in the balancing market so far have been €1.4k/MWh and €3.8k/MWh, both incidents of which occurred during significant plant trips in Northern Ireland. In both cases, plant bidding high prices set the balancing price and a major factor of this was due to constraints. The Regulatory Authorities (RAs) have expressed concerns that the BM design was a contributing factor.