Evaluation of ancillary services provision capabilities from distributed energy supply

Abstract

In April 2012, a consortium of 12 partners started the REserviceS project aiming at establishing reference guidance for the development of European network codes and electricity market design with large share of variable renewables. One step in achieving this goal is to investigate the capabilities and availability of ancillary services provision from distributed generation (DG) under different scenarios, to assess these capabilities under different grid conditions and to also perform the related economic assessment. The methodology used for these investigations is presented in this paper

Optimal Dispatch of Residential Photovoltaic Inverters Under Forecasting Uncertainties

“…This approach is suitable for real-time network operation, based on instantaneous measurements of loads and available powers. On the other hand, solar irradiance forecasting errors must be taken into account when OID is utilized for ancillary-services procurement, in either day-ahead or hour-ahead ancillary service markets [5], [6]. In this case, system operators cannot rely on the expected value of the active power available from the PV array to quantify the amount of ancillary services to provision.…”

“…To solve the OID problem, the distribution network operator requires: i) the Monte Carlo samples {p av [s] ∈ D} S s=1 , based on the distribution of the solar irradiation error [15]; ii) the network admittance matrix Y; ii) the probability level β; the ratings {S h }; and, v) the weighting coefficients c L , c P , c z , c R , which may be driven by ancillary service market strategies [5], [6] and/or security-oriented objectives. The optimization package CVX 3 is employed to solve the OID problem in MATLAB.…”

“…To ensure reliable operation of existing distribution feeders even during peak PV generation hours, recent efforts have focused on the possibility of inverters providing ancillary services [4]- [6]. For instance, reactive power compensation approaches have been recognized as a viable option to effect voltage regulation at the medium-voltage distribution level [7]- [9].…”

“…Distinct from [3], [7]- [12], the problem of ancillary service procurement is considered in this paper. Specifically, ancillary service procurement refers here to the task of scheduling the inverters that will be required to provide ancillary services (in e.g., minute-, hour-or day-ahead markets [5], [6]), as well as quantifying both reactive reserves of the selected inverters and the active powers that inverters may be required to curtail. In this case, system operators cannot solely rely on the expected irradiance conditions to quantify the amount of ancillary services to provision, and irradiance forecasting errors must be taken into account.…”

Optimization of active distribution networks: Design and analysis of significative case studies for enabling control actions of real infrastructure

“…The number and type of available generators depend on the regulatory framework (for example all generators above a given size should provide certain network services), on the technical characteristics of the generators (PV are different from thermal units), and on the necessity of the network [3].…”