Enhanced Ancillary Services from Wind Power Plants - EASE WIND

It is the purpose of this project to develop, assess and demonstrate technical solutions for providing a wide range of ancillary services and consolidating the control room operability that will enable a future large scale integration of wind power into the power system. Possible market barriers will be identified and valued and their mitigation will be discussed.

Energinet.dk is today buying short circuit power, reactive reserves and voltage control from large power plants connected to the transmission grid. The power plants delivering these ancillary services are required to stay synchronized with the grid, which due to their minimum stable power generation levels add power production even in situations with very low power prices. Hence the main goal is to reduce the need for running conventional power units in the system for shorter or longer periods by enabling the wind power plants to provide ancillary services. Such enhanced services will enable wind farms to assist the power system in maintaining the security and reliability of power supply in networks with a large scale penetration of wind power.

The ancillary services must not exist alone in an ideal system of grid, conventional power and wind farms. The operation and market value must be seen in a much larger smart grid context.

Provision of down regulation i.e. negative reserves from wind parks is absolutely essential with high shares of wind power in the power system and should happen when the payment for down regulation surpasses the value of the lost production (which depends on the design of the support scheme). The provision of positive reserves from wind parks require down regulation of the actual wind power production in order to be ready for providing up regulation with different activation times depending on the reserve category in question. Here the decision to down regulate will depend on the value of the lost production in comparison with the payment for providing positive reserves. Positive reserves are bought before the actual operation hours, e.g., Energinet.dk presently buys primary reserves in daily auctions, so reliable forecasts of the wind power production from a specific wind park from ½ hour to 36 hours ahead is essential when trading reserves from wind parks. Furthermore the value of the lost production will for some support schemes depend on day-ahead and intra-day power market prices such that forecasts of these prices will be required in some cases.