Ancillary services (electric power)
Ancillary services are the services necessary to support the transmission of electric power from generators to consumers given the obligations of control areas and transmission utilities within those control areas to maintain reliable operations of the interconnected transmission system. "Ancillary services are all services required by the transmission or distribution system operator to enable them to maintain the integrity and stability of the transmission or distribution system as well as the power quality". Ancillary services are specialty services and functions provided by actors within the electric grid that facilitate and support the continuous flow of electricity, so that the demand for electrical energy is met in real time. The term ancillary services is used to refer to a variety of operations beyond generation and transmission that are required to maintain grid stability and security. These services generally include active power control or frequency control and reactive power control or voltage control, on various timescales. Traditionally, ancillary services have been provided by large production units such as generators. With the integration of more intermittent generation and the development of smart grid technologies, the provision of ancillary services is extended to smaller distributed generation and consumption units. There are two broad categories of ancillary services: Frequency related: Inertia, Frequency Containment Reserve (FCR), and Automatic Frequency Restoration Reserve (aFRR) Non-frequency related: reactive power and voltage control and congestion management Other types of ancillary services provision include: system restart scheduling and dispatch loss compensation load following system protection energy imbalance Frequency control refers to the need to ensure that the grid frequency stays within a specific range of the nominal frequency. Mismatch between electricity generation and demand causes variations in frequency, so control services are required to bring the frequency back to its nominal value and ensure it does not vary out of range.