National Grid is rationalising the market for ancillary services. Will that include phasing out the parallel mandatory market? Janet Wood reports

As National Grid evolves its ancillary services market, one question arises. What is the future for mandatory services?

What are mandatory services? They refer to some of the same ancillary requirements that the system operator accesses through tendered markets, but the service is not up for tender: instead it is provided by generating plant as a requirement for connecting to the transmission network.