Technical process information
Automated bids are a function of manual bids
All Initial Bids are submitted manually.
The latest manual bid is called the Reference Bid.
All physical components and pricebands of the Reference Bid are inputs into the algorithms and these values are preserved in the Algo bid.
Not all periods will be solved by the algorithms, for example the late rebidding period. If a new Reference Bid is detected then the Reference Bid will be submitted for the periods not solved by the algorithms.
If a new Reference Bid is not detected then the current acknowledged bid will be submitted for the periods not solved by by the algorithms. This helps ensure that the late rebidding period continues to have values formulated by the algorithm.
Important: any manual bid should be drafted from a bid synchronised with the current acknowledged bid. If a manual bid is drafted from, for example, a bid template, then the late rebidding period bid structure that had been previously optimised will be overwritten by the content of the new manual bid, irrespective of the source of the new manual bid.
For FCAS bids, the algorithms derives and allocates the optimal volume across the ten BandAvail MWs entirely from scratch. The BandAvail MWs of a manual FCAS bid are not consumed by the algorithms.
For Energy bids, the algorithms reallocates a limited optimal volume of BandAvail MWs from the Reference Bid. Therefore the BandAvail MWs of a manual Energy bid are consumed by vAdvisor and the bulk of the bid structure is preserved. The limited volume that can be reallocated is a Trader Parameter called Trader delta Limit Volume, TdLV.
How manual bids impact the submission process.
The solve cycle begins approximately 3 minutes into a dispatch interval when updated predispatch and p5min data are published and loaded. The optimisation and bid allocation processes then takes approximately 30 seconds to complete. The Autobidder then checks to see if a new manual bid has been acknowledged during these 30 seconds.
If a new manual bid has not been found then the autobidder submits the new Algo bid. However if a new manual bid is found then the Autobidder pauses the submission process until the next dispatch interval. This is done to ensure that the new manual bid takes precedence. If the autobidder was not paused then there could be an inconsistency between the new manual bid and the algo bid.
How switching submit mode to OFF is not necessarily instantaneous
After submit mode has been changed to OFF the Autobidder remains in an ‘OFF pending’ state for the next dispatch interval to conduct checks that ensure that the last Algo bid is consistent with the last manual bid. If they are not consistent then an Algo bid is submitted from the next solve cycle and the checks are rerun.