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Ancillary Services in Microgrids

Ancillary services are essential for maintaining the stability and reliability of electrical power systems, particularly in grids with high renewable energy integration. Key types include frequency regulation, voltage support, spinning reserves, and demand response, all of which are crucial for microgrids to operate effectively. Future trends indicate a growing role for AI, hydrogen storage, and electric vehicles in providing these services, enhancing grid performance and efficiency.

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10 views

Ancillary Services in Microgrids

Ancillary services are essential for maintaining the stability and reliability of electrical power systems, particularly in grids with high renewable energy integration. Key types include frequency regulation, voltage support, spinning reserves, and demand response, all of which are crucial for microgrids to operate effectively. Future trends indicate a growing role for AI, hydrogen storage, and electric vehicles in providing these services, enhancing grid performance and efficiency.

Uploaded by

abdull
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Microgrid Ancillary Services

Introduction to Ancillary Services

Ancillary services are critical functions provided to ensure the stability, reliability,
and efficiency of an electrical power system. They are necessary to support the
transmission of electricity from generation sites to end-users while maintaining grid
stability and power quality. Ancillary services are especially crucial in modern grids
with high penetration of renewable energy sources, as these grids often face
challenges such as variability, intermittency, and unpredictability of power
generation.
Types of Ancillary Services

1. Frequency Regulation Frequency regulation


involves maintaining the system frequency within
prescribed limits (e.g., 50 Hz or 60 Hz). It ensures that
power supply and demand remain balanced in real-
time. Automatic Generation Control (AGC), battery
energy storage systems, and flexible loads are often used
for this purpose.
2. Voltage Support Voltage support involves maintaining
voltage levels within acceptable ranges. This is
achieved by controlling reactive power. Devices
such as capacitor banks, synchronous condensers,
and advanced inverters from distributed energy
resources (DERs) provide voltage regulation.
3. Spinning and Non-Spinning Reserves
o Spinning Reserves: These are online reserves that

can respond almost instantly to a grid contingency.


o Non-Spinning Reserves: These are offline reserves that can be
activated within a short time to handle demand surges or generation
shortfalls.
4. Black Start Capability Black start capability is the process of restoring
power to a grid without relying on external power sources. Diesel generators
and other standalone power units are typically used for black starts.
5. Reactive Power Compensation This service is essential for minimizing
transmission losses and maintaining voltage stability. Advanced grid-forming
inverters and reactive power compensation devices play a critical role in
modern power systems.
6. Load Following Load following refers to adjusting generation to match
variations in demand throughout the day. It is particularly important in
systems with high renewable energy penetration, as these systems experience
fluctuating generation patterns.
7. Demand Response (DR) Demand response involves modulating consumer
power usage to maintain grid stability. This can include incentivizing users to
reduce consumption during peak hours or increasing usage during periods of
excess generation.

Relevance to Microgrids

Microgrids, which are localized grids that can operate independently or in


conjunction with the main grid, rely heavily on ancillary services to maintain
stability. These services are essential for integrating distributed energy resources
such as solar photovoltaics (PV), wind turbines, and energy storage systems (ESS).
By coordinating ancillary services effectively, microgrids can ensure reliable
operation even during islanding scenarios.
Challenges in Implementing Ancillary Services

1. Cost: Advanced technologies like battery storage systems and smart inverters
are expensive.
2. Regulatory Barriers: Integrating microgrids into national grids often
involves overcoming regulatory hurdles.
3. Intermittency: The variability of renewable energy sources makes it
challenging to provide consistent ancillary services.
4. Coordination: Effective coordination between multiple DERs, storage
systems, and loads is required to optimize ancillary service delivery.

Future Trends

• Artificial Intelligence (AI): AI-based systems are increasingly being used for
real-time optimization of ancillary services.
• Hydrogen Storage: Hydrogen is emerging as a long-duration storage option
for providing ancillary services.
• Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G): Electric vehicles are being utilized for frequency
regulation and other services through bidirectional charging.

EVS AND ANCILLARY SERVICES MARKET

It has been studied that most of the vehicles are parked for over 95% of their
time. If connected to the grid during this idle time the batteries and chargers of
EVs could be used to transmit active and reactive power from the vehicle and
internal capacitors back to the grid. The prerequisite for such function is a
bidirectional EV Supply Equipment (EVSE or EV Charger) which can be
optimally designed for providing support to the grid during critical conditions:
active power ride-through, regulation of reactive power, and sending active
power back to the grid for peak shaving (Kisacikoglu, Ozpineci, & Tolbert,
2011). With the bidirectional charging capacity integrated with intelligent and
smart charging features, EVSE can be programmed to charge the vehicle during
off-peak hours of the local distribution system, which also serves to support the
grid to flatten the load shape. The ancillary services from VGI can be divided
into peak power shaving, spinning reserves, and voltage and frequency regulation
(Ehsani, Falahi, & Lotfifard, 2012).

Peak Shaving: Injection of active power stored in the batteries of EVs during
peak load hours can help lowering the peak power demand of the distribution
system. However, in order to act as a reliable peak power source, utility needs to
know the exact location of the available source. Therefore, larger fixed charging
stations present in public, commercial or industrial areas need to be created which
can be used as distributed generation source by the utility during peak hours.

Active Power Regulation can be used for maintaining the frequency of the grid
at 50Hz (or 60Hz where relevant) and to minimize voltage fluctuations. The grid
operator uses a real-time communication signal to request active power
regulation. Therefore, a unit with short response time and high ramp rate is
required to provide this service. EVs with power electronics chargers have fast
response time and high ramp rate, which makes them suitable for regulation and
batteries can be used for active regulation if connected to grid through a high
power DC/AC inverter. Sizing of the battery and the AC/DC interface is
important for regulation.
Spinning Reserve is provided by online generators that can change their output
instantly in response to major transmission outages. These units are equipped
with advanced telecommunication facilities and can reach their full output within
minutes. Spinning reserves should be capable of sustaining their response for few
hours. Spinning reserve is required less frequently than active regulation.
Batteries of electric vehicles are perfectly suited for this service. However,
similar to peak shaving services the utilities need to know the exact location and
capacity connected to the distribution system at any given time.

Ancillary Services Analysis on HOMER Pro


Software

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