Availability Charts

Charts Included In This Section:

The following charts are included within this section:

• Availability Heatmap - an overview of where units have and haven't been available over time.
• Daily Forwards Availability - a view over the next 14 days of planned levels of max availability across the market.
• System Margin Summary - the margin between levels of generation and levels of availability in the market.
• Weekly Forwards Availability - on a weekly level the availability at units across the next 52 weeks.

What Is Availability?

Units will not always be available to generate either due to imbalances or due to outages. The availability section focuses on which units have outages and considers which units are available to generate at any given point in time. By deducting levels of expected generation the margin of the system may also be identified showing how much extra capacity is available to the system (although some units may take longer than others to come online).

The levels of availability are identified by declarations of Max Export Limit (MEL) which units are obliged to report accurately and promptly to give the grid and indication of their capabilities and ability to deliver power.

In terms of long term availabilities units are also obliged to indicate their levels of long term availability into the future and these indicate where units have planned outages for instance across the summer if they are a coal unit planning a period of major maintenance and for nuclear units shows the general refuelling schedule.