Ancillary services are the kind of services that give the energy grid stability and enable it to keep running smoothly. They include the ability to restart the grid after a full or partial blackout, voltage regulation that may involve the use of spinning or non-spinning reserve, and frequency regulation to maintain the grid functioning between 49.9 and 50.1 hertz.
Ancillary services are tasks that assist grid operators in keeping a dependable power infrastructure in place. They ensure the right direction and flow of electricity, deal with supply and demand imbalances, and aid in the system’s recovery following a power system event. Additional auxiliary services may be needed in systems with a sizable variable renewable energy (RE) penetration to manage the increased fluctuation and uncertainty.
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What Does Ancillary Services Include?
Ancillary Services include:
- Synchronized regulation is a service that mitigates electrical imbalances that could have an immediate impact on the stability of the power system.
- Contingency reserves are available in case a system component—such as a generator, transmission line, circuit breaker, switch, or another electrical element—unexpectedly fails or goes down.
- In the uncommon case that the entire grid loses electricity, black-start regulation provides electricity for system restoration.
- A new idea called flexibility reserves seeks to control reserves by addressing variability and uncertainty on periods longer than contingency.
