Svk aFRR Energy Activation Market Implementation Guide (2026)

Two documents on the aFRR energy activation market (aFRR EAM) that Sweden is to introduce when it connects to the European PICASSO platform: a Svk news notice of 25 September 2026 (“Förberedelser inför aFRR energiaktiveringsmarknad och anslutning till PICASSO”) and the Nordic BSP Implementation Guide: aFRR energy activation market, version 1.1 (cover date 9 July 2026; the revision table dates version 1.1 to 1 July 2026). Version 1.0 (20 April 2026) came from Energinet, Fingrid and Svk with Statnett; version 1.1 added Svk-specific information on the bid activation process. The guide is a technical interface description for balancing service providers (BSPs), not a set of terms and conditions (BSPs must also comply with the national terms).

Svk notice (25 September 2026)

• Sweden plans to connect to PICASSO in Q4 2027, and introduces an aFRR EAM at the same time.
• Svk will hold recurring information meetings on coming aFRR-market changes, open to all, at first aimed at existing aFRR providers.
• Work is under way to let more actors participate in the aFRR market, among other things through a central agent (ombud) solution. Information aimed at new providers will follow. The notice gives no detail on the solution.
• Contact: afrr@svk.se.

How the aFRR EAM works (guide, chapters 1–3)

• Today: each Nordic TSO’s aFRR activation follows the results of the Nordic aFRR capacity market, with the total demand shared pro rata among the TSOs.
• With the EAM: BSPs submit energy bids (volume and price); the TSOs send their local merit order lists to PICASSO, which selects bids from the common merit order list each optimisation cycle, subject to cross-zonal capacity, and returns results in real time. The TSO then sends activation signals to the BSPs each control cycle.
• Link to the capacity market: a BSP with accepted aFRR capacity bids must place at least a corresponding volume of energy bids; energy bids can also be placed without a capacity-market position.
• Status: the EAM already operates for Fingrid and Energinet; it is planned for Svk and Statnett.
• Product characteristics at go-live: price range ±15,000 EUR/MWh in 0.01 EUR steps; minimum bid 1 MW, maximum 9,999 MW (technical limit), bid granularity 1 MW, activation granularity continuous; bid validity period 15 minutes; BSP portfolio limit based on prequalified capacity.
• Timing: BSP gate closure T-25 minutes and TSO gate closure T-10 minutes before the validity period; the PICASSO optimisation cycle (and market time unit) is 4 seconds; delivery time 30 seconds; full activation time is TSO-specific.
• Bid handling: bids go by ECP/EDX in a CIM-based ReserveBid document; every document gets an acknowledgement; one invalid bid makes the whole document rejected; a validity period cannot be changed (cancel and resubmit); unchanged bids need not be resent.
• Availability: the TSO can mark a bid unavailable (lost real-time connection, operator action, BSP request, IT problems, system security, local congestion) and informs the BSP in a bid availability document after the validity period. If a bid becomes unavailable before gate closure the BSP must cancel it; after gate closure the BSP must phone the TSO.
• Fallback: if the PICASSO connection is lost, the TSO selects bids locally by merit order without exchanging energy or net demand between areas; BSP processes do not change.
• Publication and settlement: prices and volumes go to the ENTSO-E Transparency Platform; settlement and invoicing for Nordic BSPs is done by eSett, with the BSP’s activations and costs available the next day in 15-minute resolution, separated into AOF (activated via the platform’s optimisation) and non-AOF volumes. Whether to use the Nordic NBiS platform as well is to be decided after accession.

Svk-specific rules (chapter 4.4)

• Bidding window: opens at D-1 12:00 market time for all validity periods (Energinet 30 days before, Fingrid 7 days before).
• Channel: ECP/EDX. A graphical interface (FiftyWeb) may be added, with no decision on whether it is ready at PICASSO connection.
• Updates and cancellation before gate closure: send the affected time series in a new document with a new document ID and the original bid ID; preferred cancellation is to set the status to unavailable (a zero quantity on an existing bid sets it unavailable).
• Bid availability report: sent after T+16 minutes, with coded reasons (for example failure, lost real-time connection, faulty bid, conditional bid not in the merit order list).
• Real-time activation: signals run between Svk’s load frequency control (LFC) system and an Agent that connects the BSPs, over the ICCP protocol. Svk sends a setpoint (MW) and a “unit active” indication. The BSP side returns “remote control permitted”, setpoint confirmation, actual MW contribution and available capacity up and down. Signal names follow a fixed pattern by sending party, receiving party, BSP, area (SE1–SE4) and signal.
• Publication: ENTSO-E Transparency Platform; Svk to publish to its own open data platform (SDS) later.
• Messaging limits: at most 2,000 time series per message and 100 bid messages per BSP per validity period.

Relevance to wiki

• Gives the market-mechanics detail behind the PICASSO entry in Balancing Markets and Nordic Balancing Model: bidding opens day-ahead at 12:00, bids are 15-minute validity periods, and activation is optimised in 4-second cycles.
• The notice still gives Q4 2027 for Sweden as of 25 September 2026, after the September 2026 MARI postponement; it calls this a plan, not a commitment. See Source - Svk PICASSO Anslutningsdatum (2025) for the earlier notice and its stated dependencies.
• The mention of a central agent (ombud) solution for broader aFRR participation connects to Aggregation and to the Agent concept in the guide’s real-time interface; the sources do not say whether these are the same thing.
• eSett settles and invoices aFRR energy activations; Flexibility Communication Protocols covers layer 4 grid protocols and now has the TSO–BSP interface (ECP/EDX, CIM documents, ICCP) as a concrete example.

Data gaps

• What the “central ombudslösning” for aFRR participation is (who acts as agent, on whose behalf, and its relation to the Agent in the ICCP interface)