Individual Reserve Capacity Requirement (IRCR)
To fund capacity that is procured through the Reserve Capacity Mechanism, Market Customers are given an Individual Reserve Capacity Requirement (IRCR) obligation. The Individual Reserve Capacity Requirement (IRCR) is a quantity of capacity (expressed in MW) which represents that customer's contribution to the total system load during peak times. This includes the Reserve Margin set by the IMO.
The IRCR for each Market Customer is initially set each Reserve Capacity Year and is adjusted each month to reflect changes in meter ownership (customer churn) and the introduction of new meters onto the SWIS.
Different levels of IRCR apply for temperature dependent loads, non-temperature dependent loads and intermittent loads. Full details of the IRCR can be found in clauses 4.28 and Appendix 5 of the Market Rules.
Each month the IMO publishes information that can be used by Market Customers to reconcile their IRCR. This includes peak interval information and a number of ratios. Details of this information can be found by clicking on one of the following links:
Hot Season 12 Peak Trading Intervals
New Meter 4 Peak Trading Intervals
IRCR Publication Extension Notice
The IMO has extended the date and time by which it will publish the February 2013 Individual Reserve Capacity Requirements (IRCR) under clause 4.1.24 of the Market rules to 5pm on 30 January 2013. This timeline extension is due to an investigation into the meter data required for the calculation of IRCR.
This extension is made pursuant to clause 4.1.32 of the Market Rules.