Japan wholesale and balancing markets

Japan. Status: operational.

Wholesale design: JEPX operates a voluntary day-ahead spot auction with 48 half-hour products and blind single-price clearing, plus continuous intraday trading and forward products.

Operator
Japan Electric Power Exchange (JEPX) for wholesale trading; EPRX and the transmission system operators for balancing; OCCTO for capacity-market administration
Where energy trades

Where does energy trade in Japan wholesale and balancing markets?

Energy in Japan wholesale and balancing markets trades in 3 layers: day-ahead spot, intraday and forward.

What a battery can sell

What ancillary services can a battery sell in Japan wholesale and balancing markets?

Japan wholesale and balancing markets has 5 ancillary-service products, across 3 families — frequency containment, automatic frequency restoration and manual frequency restoration: Primary Control Reserve / Frequency Containment Reserve, Secondary Control Reserve 2 / Frequency Restoration Reserve, Tertiary Control Reserve 1 / Replacement Reserve, Tertiary Control Reserve 2 / Replacement Reserve for FIT, Secondary Control Reserve 1 / Synchronized Frequency Restoration Reserve. Response timing, direction and eligibility for each are in the table below; a product's full record lists the official sources behind it.

Every value below comes from the official sources listed in that product's full record. Most products cite more than one, and the published sources do not say which of them states each individual value, so the binding is to the product's record rather than to a single document. A missing line means the source does not state that value — never that the value is zero.

Scroll the table sideways for the rest of the columns →

5 ancillary-service products in Japan wholesale and balancing markets, grouped into 3 families. Each row runs left to right through one product's life: how it activates, how quickly it has to respond, how long it has to keep delivering, and how it is bought.
Service How it activates Response Sustained delivery Procurement
Frequency containment
Primary Control Reserve / Frequency Containment Reserve 一次調整力 / FCR raise; lower operational Response type pre- and post-fault automatic local control Trigger Automatic local control outside a deadband no wider than plus/minus 0.01 Hz in 50 Hz areas or plus/minus 0.012 Hz in 60 Hz areas. For contingency-quantity assessment, the abnormal-event criterion is a sustained 0.2 Hz fall from nominal, or 0.3 Hz in Hokkaido. Full activation 10 s Minimum obligation at least 5 min As stated Area procurement requirements vary by week/day and are not reduced to one national typical range. Area procurement requirements vary by week/day and are not reduced to one national typical range. Through EPRX balancing-market auction, minimum bid 1 MW and 1 kW increments How it settles Availability (delta-kW) contracted through the balancing market; transaction rules use multi-price/pay-as-bid settlement, with activation-energy settlement under TSO rules.
Full record for Primary Control Reserve / Frequency Containment Reserve — document bound, page for these figures not recorded
What it is for

Address extremely short-cycle imbalance and generation-loss contingencies through local frequency control.

In force from

1 April 2024

Who can provide it

Prequalified generators, storage, demand resources and aggregations meeting local-control, telemetry and response tests.

Checkpoint recap

Full activation 10 s · Minimum sustained 5 min

What the source does not state

The source states the full-activation requirement, a minimum delivery period, and a procurement volume in its own words. It does not state a maximum duration.

Sources
Automatic frequency restoration
Secondary Control Reserve 2 / Frequency Restoration Reserve 二次調整力② / FRR raise; lower operational Response type centrally dispatched EDC Trigger TSO economic-dispatch-control signal; not a frequency-relay product. Full activation 5 min Minimum obligation at least 30 min As stated Area- and interval-specific requirements. Area- and interval-specific requirements. Through EPRX balancing-market auction, minimum bid 1 MW and 1 kW increments How it settles Multi-price/pay-as-bid delta-kW availability settlement plus activation-energy arrangements.
Full record for Secondary Control Reserve 2 / Frequency Restoration Reserve — document bound, page for these figures not recorded
What it is for

Correct longer-period forecast error arising after gate closure.

In force from

1 April 2024

Who can provide it

Prequalified generation, storage, demand resources and aggregations with qualifying control/telemetry.

Checkpoint recap

Full activation 5 min · Minimum sustained 30 min

What the source does not state

The source states the full-activation requirement, a minimum delivery period, and a procurement volume in its own words. It does not state a maximum duration.

Sources
Secondary Control Reserve 1 / Synchronized Frequency Restoration Reserve 二次調整力① / S-FRR raise; lower operational Response type pre- and post-fault centrally controlled LFC Trigger TSO load-frequency-control signal; no one national Hz trigger. Full activation 5 min Minimum obligation at least 30 min As stated Area- and interval-specific requirements. Area- and interval-specific requirements. Through EPRX balancing-market auction, minimum bid 1 MW and 1 kW increments How it settles Multi-price/pay-as-bid delta-kW availability settlement plus activation-energy arrangements.
Full record for Secondary Control Reserve 1 / Synchronized Frequency Restoration Reserve — document bound, page for these figures not recorded
What it is for

Correct short-cycle within-period variation and respond to generation loss through load-frequency-control signals.

In force from

1 April 2024

Who can provide it

Prequalified resources able to receive LFC signals and meet monitoring/performance tests.

Checkpoint recap

Full activation 5 min · Minimum sustained 30 min

What the source does not state

The source states the full-activation requirement, a minimum delivery period, and a procurement volume in its own words. It does not state a maximum duration.

Sources
Manual frequency restoration
Tertiary Control Reserve 1 / Replacement Reserve 三次調整力① / RR raise; lower operational Response type centrally dispatched EDC or simplified instruction Trigger TSO dispatch instruction; no fixed Hz trigger. Full activation 15 min Minimum obligation at least 30 min As stated Area- and interval-specific requirements. Area- and interval-specific requirements. Through EPRX balancing-market auction, minimum bid 1 MW and 1 kW increments How it settles Multi-price/pay-as-bid delta-kW availability settlement plus activation-energy arrangements.
Full record for Tertiary Control Reserve 1 / Replacement Reserve — document bound, page for these figures not recorded
What it is for

Cover demand and renewable forecast error after gate closure and generation outages.

In force from

13 March 2026

Who can provide it

Prequalified online or start-capable generation, storage, demand resources and aggregations.

Notes from the source

Current EPRX product overview (updated 13 March 2026) states 15-minute response and 30-minute sustain. The FY2025 OCCTO comparative table used a three-hour continuation/trading block; retain that distinction for historical 2025 analysis.

Checkpoint recap

Full activation 15 min · Minimum sustained 30 min

What the source does not state

The source states the full-activation requirement, a minimum delivery period, and a procurement volume in its own words. It does not state a maximum duration.

Sources
Tertiary Control Reserve 2 / Replacement Reserve for FIT 三次調整力② / RR-FIT raise; lower operational Response type centrally dispatched Trigger TSO dispatch instruction based on renewable forecast error. Full activation 1 h Minimum obligation at least 30 min As stated Area- and interval-specific renewable forecast-error requirement. Area- and interval-specific renewable forecast-error requirement. Through EPRX balancing-market auction, minimum bid 1 MW and 1 kW increments Bought 30-minute product blocks in FY2025 How it settles Multi-price/pay-as-bid delta-kW availability settlement plus activation-energy arrangements.
Full record for Tertiary Control Reserve 2 / Replacement Reserve for FIT — document bound, page for these figures not recorded
What it is for

Cover renewable-generation forecast errors associated with the FIT special scheme.

In force from

1 April 2025

Who can provide it

Prequalified generation, storage, demand resources and aggregations able to follow the product schedule.

Checkpoint recap

Full activation 1 h · Minimum sustained 30 min

What the source does not state

The source states the full-activation requirement, a minimum delivery period, and a procurement volume in its own words. It does not state a maximum duration.

Sources
Getting paid to exist

Does Japan wholesale and balancing markets have a capacity mechanism?

Yes — OCCTO Capacity Market is a central capacity market.

OCCTO Capacity Market

operational

The main auction procures capacity four years ahead, with area-price formation and capacity-obligation contracts. Additional auctions address later shortfalls. A separate long-term decarbonised-capacity auction provides multi-year investment support.

Auction held in 2025
Yes () — The source gives the auction year without a day, so only the year is shown.

Calendar-2025 bidding included the FY2025 main auction for delivery FY2029, an additional auction for FY2026 delivery and the long-term decarbonised auction whose bid window fell in January 2025.

Caveats

Technical notes

EPRX's balancing market has five product families; all five had entered market trading by April 2024. Procurement and activation remain area/TSO coordinated.

Where this comes from

Official sources

Rules

Service specification

Market explainer

Capacity-mechanism explainer

Capacity result

Correction

Current as of · from the Global Electricity Market Catalogue v1.2.0 (compiled to , CC BY 4.0, rendered here with wording edited for readability). Facts belong to the linked official authorities; verify the current rules before design or bidding decisions.

Questions

Common questions about Japan wholesale and balancing markets

Who operates Japan wholesale and balancing markets?
Japan wholesale and balancing markets covers Japan and is operated by Japan Electric Power Exchange (JEPX) for wholesale trading; EPRX and the transmission system operators for balancing; OCCTO for capacity-market administration.
Was a qualifying capacity event held in Japan wholesale and balancing markets in 2025?
Yes. OCCTO Capacity Market: a qualifying 2025 event is recorded (2025). The source gives the auction year without a day, so only the year is shown.
How is energy traded, priced and settled in Japan wholesale and balancing markets?
Japan wholesale and balancing markets: JEPX operates a voluntary day-ahead spot auction with 48 half-hour products and blind single-price clearing, plus continuous intraday trading and forward products.
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