Architecture
How the market, system operator, networks and participants fit together.
Architecture
The Great Britain architecture can be understood as several coupled layers.
Commercial energy trading
Generators, suppliers and traders establish positions through wholesale markets and bilateral trading.
Physical system operation
NESO maintains system balance and security as delivery approaches and in real time.
Balancing and constraint management
The Balancing Mechanism, redispatch and constraint-management actions correct commercial positions and resolve physical requirements.
Adequacy and investment
The Capacity Market supports adequacy while Contracts for Difference support eligible low-carbon investment.
Networks
Transmission and distribution companies recover regulated costs through network charges and increasingly procure targeted flexibility.
Retail
Retail suppliers intermediate between wholesale markets and end consumers, with dynamic tariffs and flexibility propositions increasingly appearing at the demand side.
The result is a layered architecture rather than one unified market-clearing mechanism.