To provide Frequency Containment Reserve (FCR), suppliers must reliably protect against technical failures of their plants. Before the project began, this back up was only possible to a limited extent within a single control area and presented organizational and economic hurdles for many market participants. These limitations did not create optimal conditions for the balancing service provider (BSP).
The project aims to make the back-up of FCR reserves more flexible and efficient. Since the end of 2025, cross-control-area back up has been possible - both through providers’ own plant pools in other control areas and through pools of other providers, regardless of their location.
The implement project is structured in two phases:
Phase 1
In the first phase, cross-control-area FCR back-up was implemented via the FCR Besicherungsplattform in the BSP Support Portal. This allows outages and the transfer of FCR reserves between different BSPs to be centrally reported and organized - both within a single control area and across control areas.
The procedure for participating in cross-control-area FCR back-up is described in this guide.
Phase 2
In the second phase, this centralized reporting will be technically implemented on the Internet Platform for balancing (IPRL).
A brief update of this topic will be given at the annual Balancing Service Providers Forum in Fulda in 2026, with implementation scheduled for 2027.