

Following reserves, which provide minute-to-minute balancing during normal system conditions.Consider defining and procuring new ancillary services to manage high variable RE penetrations.Enhance the system operator’s ability to monitor variable RE generation (i.e., increase the visibility of variable RE), including distributed systems, allowing for more accurate forecasting and adequate anticipation of ancillary service needs.The following are possible strategies to encourage ancillary services, particularly under high variable RE penetration scenarios: Without proper policy alignment, generators may be discouraged from providing ancillary services if they are rewarded for energy generation alone. Further, understanding the interactions among ancillary services, energy markets, and policy is critical to creating incentives that encourage positive interplay between variable RE and the grid. The aggregate impact of significant variable RE on the grid suggests the need for modifications to current procurement mechanisms and ancillary services market designs and rules, and the potential for separate ancillary services markets. The magnitude of variable RE impacts vary depending on system conditions, which makes the ancillary service demands difficult to generalize across timescales and systems.Īllowing variable RE to provide in ancillary services can offer more supply to the power system, but could pose challenges based on the unique characteristics of the variable resources in question. The variability and uncertainty of wind and solar energy increases requirements for various ancillary services, affecting the scheduling and pricing of those services.


Regardless of power system structure, variable RE poses three key considerations for procuring ancillary services: In some cases, ancillary services (such as frequency and inertial response) can be assured through interconnection requirements rather than contractual or market mechanisms. In contrast, in partially or wholly restructured power systems, electricity generators with technical capacity to provide ancillary services can participate in competitive ancillary services markets. For example, vertically integrated utilities use administrative tools such as contracts, requests for proposals, and internal acquisitions to procure the suite of ancillary services they need to balance supply and demand and maintain grid reliability. Regulatory context strongly shapes how different systems procure ancillary services. Synchronized regulation, which is a service that corrects for short-term changes in electrical imbalances that might affect the stability of the power system.Ĭontingency reserves, which are used to respond to an unexpected failure or outage of a system component, such as a generator, transmission line, circuit breaker, switch or other electrical element.īlack-start regulation, which supplies electricity for system restoration in the unlikely event that the entire grid loses power.įlexibility reserves, which is an emerging concept for addressing variability and uncertainty on timescales longer than contingency and regulating reserves. In systems with significant variable renewable energy (RE) penetration, additional ancillary services may be required to manage increased variability and uncertainty. Ancillary services maintain the proper flow and direction of electricity, address imbalances between supply and demand, and help the system recover after a power system event. Ancillary services refer to functions that help grid operators maintain a reliable electricity system.
