/

The Role of BRPs and BSPs in Balancing the Grid

Since Elia does not have its own facilities on which it can modify injections or offtakes, Elia uses the flexibility or capacity of certified electricity companies to ensure a reliable high-voltage grid and a high-quality energy supply (this is referred to as 'explicit flexibility'). These companies are know as Balance Responsible Parties (BRPs) and Balancing Service Providers (BSPs)

BRPs

A Balance Responsible Party (BRP) ensures that energy supply and consumption within its portfolio are balanced on a day-to-day basis. They are responsible for forecasting energy needs and ensuring that supply matches demand to avoid imbalances on the grid.

Examples of BRP Services:

Managing energy portfolios for businesses or large-scale consumers
Predicting energy needs and trading energy in the wholesale market.
If they have physical assets in their portfolio, they also manage their imbalance position in real-time (which is rewarded or penalized depending on whether it worsens or helps the total system imbalance)

Markets BRPs give access to:

Find our list of BRPs How to become Balance Responsible Party (BRP)?

BSPs

A Balancing Service Provider is responsible for offering explicit flexibility services to the electricity grid. BSPs provide the necessary capacity & energy so the Transmission System Operator (TSO) can balance supply and demand in real time. If more energy is needed, BSPs can increase supply or reduce demand, and vice-versa when there is a surplus of energy.

Examples of BSP Services:

Providing reserve capacity to ensure sufficient balancing energy is available at all times.
Acting as intermediaries for industrial and commercial consumers to monetise their flexibility.
Steering assets such as batteries, wind turbines, or demand-side management to participate in explicit balancing.

Markets BSPs give access to:

Find our list of BSPs How to become Balancing Service Provider (BSP)?