> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.engrate.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Imbalance record

An imbalance record is one volume of one imbalance series in one settlement
period. [List Imbalances](https://docs.engrate.io/api-reference/timeseries/list-imbalances.md) gives the
records, and [List Imbalance Series](https://docs.engrate.io/api-reference/timeseries/list-imbalance-series.md)
gives the dimensions of each series.

## Sign

`volume_wh` is signed. On the total, a positive volume means that the balance
group was long: it injected more, or withdrew less, than its trade schedule. A
negative volume means that it was short.

An adjustment has the sign of its effect on the imbalance. A positive adjustment
makes the balance group longer, and a negative adjustment makes it shorter.

## Regulation direction

The suffix of an adjustment class tells what the transmission operator did:

* `_up`: it activated upward regulation, with more injection or less withdrawal.
* `_down`: it activated downward regulation, with less injection or more
  withdrawal.
* `_net`: one signed series. The market sends the class as one net value, or
  the class has no regulation direction.

The direction and the sign are different things. Upward regulation adds energy
at the meters of the balance group, and the adjustment takes it out of the
imbalance again. Thus an `_up` volume is usually negative.

For example, in one settlement period the transmission operator activates a
battery in your balance group upward by 2 MWh, and later downward by 0.5 MWh.
The meter shows 1.5 MWh more than the trade schedule. The adjustments take that
energy out again:

| `component_value` | `volume_wh` |
| - | - |
| `afrr_up` | -2000000 |
| `afrr_down` | 500000 |

Together they are -1.5 MWh, so the activations do not change the imbalance of
the balance group.

## More than one record per settlement period

The market sends a new run when it settles a period again, and Engrate keeps
every run. To get one value per series and settlement period, use the record
with the highest `finality`, then the latest `stated_at`. When records have
the same values in both fields, use the first of them in the response.

## Do not add across levels

The total of a balance group includes its adjustments, and the net adjustment
(`adjustment` with the value `ALL`) includes the adjustment classes. Each
`_net` class includes the same class with `_up` and `_down`. Never add volumes
across these levels. The market does not always send every adjustment class,
thus the sum of the classes can be different from the net adjustment.

The series of one component value in one scheduling area are slices of it, and
their market dimensions tell them apart. To get the value for a settlement
period, add the record that you keep for each slice. For example, the
`mfrr_up` of a balance group in one scheduling area is the sum of its
`mfrr_up` series in that area.


This documentation is built and hosted on [Mintlify](https://mintlify.com), a developer documentation platform.