30 minutes is already reasonably fine-grained- enough time for a gas turbine to spin up. Shorter-scale fluctuations are usually handled by reserves and even jus

30 minutes is already reasonably fine-grained- enough time for a gas turbine to spin up. Shorter-scale fluctuations are usually handled by reserves and even just the momentum of spinning generators. Its certainly possible that going shorter could help, but I haven't seen enough variation on 5 or 15 minute timescales, except when a power plant goes offline unexpectedly, to see a huge benefit. Now, one could try to replace the existing reserve mechanisms with the shorter-scale market you describe, but given the resistance to change in the grid operators, I think this is a difficult fight.