Well begun is half done, a common phrase used by Aristotle himself that literally sounds ridiculous while the work is in progress. Still, there is a seed of truth hidden in it, and afterwards you might be able to notice it when you look at the situation from an objective point of view.

Like many other market participants in the electricity market, eSett started the preparations for the single balance – single position model and the 15-minute settlement period with the aim of the same go-live date. In 2019 we went through our system documentation internally, and in co-operation with our system vendor we planned what kind of changes and adjustments will be necessary for the future successful imbalance settlement. We were quite satisfied with the “final” solution that was written down in the documentation after the hours and hours of plowing through different Online Service, BackOffice, data flow etc. specifications.

As we all know, the marriage of the 15-minute settlement and single balance model got postponed, which meant that eSett was in the situation where the Nordic electricity market offered us more time for planning. Unluckily, the offer meant that the already finished solution needed re-evaluation. We rolled up our sleeves and split the part of the 15-minute settlement from the documentation to wait for future days and hopefully these two improvements for the electricity market will live happily ever after to the end of their days starting from 22nd of May in 2023.

There have been quite a lot of ongoing discussions and dialogues during the past years about when would be the right time for the Single Balance model. Therefore, we all had eagerly awaited when the wheel of fortune would finally stop and give us the solid go-live date. While waiting, eSett decided not just to wait, but also to implement the readiness for our imbalance settlement system in advance.

To be honest, our decision made our next development parts easier to implement as there are no “old improvements” blocking the development pipe. It is the reason why market participants have been able to see for example the layout of the Online Service views, which will be used later in the single balance model. Even though, the complexity of testing was increased as future and currently used functionalities must been taken to concern. The silver lining here is, that the testing of the single balance model has been repeated many more times before the implementation compared to regular tests. This makes us more confident to have a successful go live.

Before the great finale, the plot always thickens, and the same goes for this story. Most of the tasks have been already handled but the final touch still needs to be done, as for example some structural adjustments, agreements updates and of course mental and physical readiness for the single balance model. At some point during the years, it has felt a bit like a bumpy and prolonged ride, but now we are able to say that we can almost see the finish line and here it finally comes!