What do Atlantis, Narnia and BID3 have in common? All featured at the autumn 2022 user forum in Oxford!

The user forum saw the BID3 users and developers together in person for the first time since before the pandemic, and we took that chance not only to explore the electricity markets on Atlantis, but also visit some of sights and inspirations behind CS Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia in Oxford.

It wasn’t all Norsk mythology and fantasy novels though, as we got up-close and personal with BID3 and its various applications from around the globe:

• We started at home from the UK to showcase how BID3’s strong analysis in storage has been used to shape decision making
• Across the Irish sea we looked at valuating the business case for batteries in Ireland with all their exciting potential as well as conundrums
• Wandered in the test world of BID3’s Atlantis database which provided a handy area for demo’ing various features of the model that are lesser known
• Then we flew across the south Atlantic to Brazil, where we presented BID3 capabilities in modelling a complex hydro electricity market with cascading
• Up north to the US, we presented the inner workings of the US capacity markets and how BID3 is used to support the analysis
• Lastly, we looked at the evolving capabilities of nodal modelling in BID3 and how it’s been used by the Nordic TSOs in the Bidding Zone Review

Of course, having it in-person meant that we were able to dig deep in BID3 world where our experts demonstrated how to generate solar and wind profiles. We presented our BID3 development roadmap, and gauged the appetite for new features for the user section of the recently redesigned BID3 Portal.

A guided tour of Oxford at the end of the first day provided our visitors a unique view of the University of Oxford with all its rich history and peculiarities. One highlight of the tour was the lamp-post that inspired Narnia, and wooden carvings of Aslan and Mr. Tumnus.

All our users will have access to video recordings of the session and the presentations exclusively on the BID3 Portal. We are already gathering ideas for the next user forum, so whether we opt for the Voyage of the Dawn Treader or Lion, Witch and Wardrobe, BID3 will be there!