How to get started with ECP

WHAT IS ECP?

ECP (Energy Communication Platform) is Energinet's new platform for sending market messages between IT systems. The platform offers secure and reliable communication in the wholesale market.

Energinet has made a strategic decision that ECP will be the future platform for market participants to use, in order for them to communicate with Energinet.

As Energinets IT systems are restructured, the number of market processes supporting ECP communication will be expanded, and forms of communication used up to that point will be phased out.

TEN QUICK STEPS TO GET ECP UP AND RUNNING

1. Download Energinet's installation guide and read it carefully

   Download the installation guide here: https://ediel.org/nordic-ecp-edx-group-nex/market-actor-onboarding/ 

2. Apply an address to your ECP end point (EIC code)

   An ECP end point must have an address in the form of a V type EIC code. As a minimum, you must have two V type EIC codes: one for testing and one for production. Similarly, if several ECP end points are created, two EIC codes must be created for each ECP endpoint. 
   Contact eic-administration@energinet.dk and request codes for both environments. You must provide certain master data in connection with the request.

3. Get approved for ECP production enviroment
   Initially, approval is obtained via a test in a PreProd environment before you can communicate with Energinet's production environments. First, a PreProd (test) environment is created.

4. Receive registration key

   In order to install an ECP end point, you must have a registration key. To get a registration key, you must first have an EIC code. Contact ecp@energinet.dk by e-mail and state your EIC code and whether your request is for a connection to the PreProd or Production environment. Remember to state your contact details.

5. Install and register the ECP end point in the Component Directory

   The ECP end point is installed, and ports are configured in the firewall. When the software is up and running, the registration process of registering the ECP end point in Energinet's Component Directory (CD) starts. The registration key received must be used in the registration process. Unfortunately, Energinet is not automatically notified when an approval request is sent. Contact ecp@energinet.dk and request approval of the ECP end point in CD.

6. Verify the ECP end point installation and send a test message to Energinet

   Start by sending a message to your own ECP end point to verify that you are connected to Energinet Broker. When this works, you are ready to send a similar message to Energinet’s end point. When the status changes to green, the connection works.

7. Install EDX tool box

   If you want more advanced options for communicating with Energinet, we recommend that you install an EDX tool box as well. In many cases, this will be necessary as Energinet will generally use service communication in connection with market processes. An EDX tool box is necessary to communicate with a service. The specific implementation guides and regulations will state the service names to be used for various market processes.

8. Verify the EDX tool box installation and send a test message to Energinet

   Send a test message to Energinet’s end point from the EDX tool box and verify that the status changes to 'received'. Please note that it is not possible to send a message to a service unless your EDX tool box is registered in Energinet's Service Catalogue.

9. Registration of EDX tool box for each service to be used (market process)

   In order to communicate with a service, your EDX tool box must be registered for use with the specific service. Contact ecp@energinet.dk to register your EDX tool box for use with a service. This is added in Energinet's Service Catalogue. Please note that when a message is sent to a service, the message will be received in a business system. Therefore, you must go through separate approval processes for each market process that you want to join. This will appear from the individual market processes.

10. Ready for installation of production enviroment

    After passing the test, you are ready to repeat the process and install and connect to Energinet's production environment.

DOWNLOAD OF ECP/EDX SOFTWARE

Energinet recommends that you download the latest software package from ENTSO-E.

When Energinet notifies that a new version is ready for production, it is recommended to upgrade your installations at your earliest convenience. It must be expected that there is at least one update per year. One at most be 1 version afterwards (N-1). If this is not observed, there will be a risk that the network will be closed until the upgrade is completed.

Licence terms are stated when you download the software. The software does not have any licensing costs when installed for the purpose of communicating with Energinet.

ECP END POINT: https://www.entsoe.eu/data/ecp/

EDX TOOL BOX: https://www.entsoe.eu/data/edx/

The packages include both client software and documentation.