Reserves and Regulation
Ancillary services such as operating and regulating reserves are an essential component of grid reliability and stability. These services help to keep the power system stable. Operating reserves can be called upon quickly when a transmission line or generating station becomes unavailable or when local area distribution problems arise. Regulating reserves help balance the power system and maintain a steady frequency given the constant fluctuations in demand.Over the past several years FERC has mandated that ISO/RTOs allow demand-side resources to participate in the ancillary services markets. In addition, the rapid growth in renewable capacity resources, including wind and photovoltaics, often results in the need for additional rapid-response reserve resources because of their intermittent ability to generate power. Demand-side resources can help increase the amount of ancillary services available to a utility, ISO/RTO, muni or coop.
Operating Reserves
CPower has many years of experience in aggregating demand resources to provide reliable ancillary services. Demand reduction is an extremely effective form of operating reserves. For example, in the ERCOT market, CPower has more than 225 megawatts that participate in programs that require a response in 10 minutes or less.
The value of CPower's demand response resources is illustrated in the following example:
On February 26, 2008 (the same day that Florida suffered a blackout), a significant amount of wind and conventionally generated electricity was expected to be on-line in ERCOT but was unavailable. At the same time, the demand for electricity was significantly higher than forecasted. As a result, ERCOT dispatched its rapid-response demand response resources (called "Load acting as a Resource" or LaaR). CPower provided more than 100% of its obligation for that hour within 10 minutes, as did many other providers. A total of 1,200 megawatts of load participating in the program was able to drop off the grid within 12 minutes, thereby preventing ERCOT from having to create rolling blackouts for non-participating clients by involuntary load shedding.
CPower uses state-of-the-art SCADA systems for real-time monitoring, metering and control in order to provide reliable resources that can respond to operator dispatch instructions in 10 minutes or less. Typically, these control systems meet the same communication protocols as those installed at generation facilities.
Regulating Reserves
Many demand resources can also provide regulation services. Regulating reserves allow the grid operator to balance the supply and demand in real-time and maintain a stable system frequency on the high-voltage grid. Keeping system frequency stable is vital to the secure and economic operation of a bulk power electrical system but can be a difficult service to provide for many large generating facilities that are unable to raise or lower their output quickly enough to provide this service. On the other hand, demand resources can often commit to either raising or lowering their consumption very quickly when asked by the grid operator. Industrial facilities that have the ability to quickly raise or lower their consumption with little disruption to their core business are good candidates for demand resources, and compensation to participating facilities reflects the high value of this service to the utility or grid operator.
CPower is able to help design a market for demand-side ancillary services or deliver turnkey ancillary services to the utility or ISO/RTO client. With CPower's turnkey services, a utility or ISO/RTO can rely on the company to deliver the contracted services on time and within budget with little distraction to their core business.