Wholesale datasets

Binding and near-binding constraints

Binding and near-binding constraints are extracted from final pricing SPD case files. The records with a non-zero shadow price, i.e. the column called MarginalDollarsPerMegawatt, are the binding constraints. Records with a zero shadow price are the near-binding constraints, specifically those constraints where the left-hand side evaluates to be within 5% or 5MW of the right-hand side.

The left-hand side of a constraint can be comprised of multiple components, each shown in a separate row of the file. Each component of a constraint is given a name - see the column called ComponentName - and the set of components belonging to a single constraint can be observed by identifying all rows with a unique ConstraintName-ConstraintType-TradingDate-TradingPeriod-ComponentType tuple. The left-hand side of a constraint can be evaluated by summing the product of ComponentCoefficient and ComponentMegawatts for each component and will yield the value given by LeftHandSideMegawatts.

The _F suffix in the file name denotes that the SPD case file is associated with final prices. See here for the explanation of why the file name might include an 'x' immediately before the suffix.

Files stopped being added to this location on 1 November 2022 with the advent of real-time pricing.