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Network services

Consulting and planning

Safety and reliability priority for the electrical system

The functioning of our electricity system is based on the fundamental principle of balance between the production and the quantity of energy required by all consumers.

The Grid Operator has the task, through the management of energy flows (dispatching), of ensuring that supply and demand are always, instant by instant, in equilibrium.

Grid services, otherwise called ancillary services, represent the “tools” that the grid operator has to ensure the operation of the entire electricity system at the levels of safety, reliability and quality required by current regulations and to which we are accustomed.

The services of greatest interest

FREQUENCY ADJUSTMENT

1

Primary Reserve: The goal is to stop the frequency change. The service is provided by the Mandatory Relevant Production Units (PUs), with activation times in the order of seconds. The resources must reach the required power change within 30 seconds and sustain the power modulation for at least 15 minutes
2

Secondary reserve: the objective is to restore the nominal value of the frequency. Terna procures the resources necessary for the service through the Dispatching Services Market (MSD), in which the Mandatory Relevant PUs can submit bids for the secondary. The service activation time is a maximum of 200 seconds to reach the required power variation and the power modulation must be maintained for at least 2 hours
3

Tertiary reserve: the objective is to restore resources and, unlike the previous ones, it is carried out at Terna's request (no automatic actions are envisaged)

A new Pilot Project, called Fast Reserve , was recently launched, which introduced a new network service, characterized by a full activation time shorter than that of primary regulation.

This ultra-rapid frequency regulation service, also open to new types of resources including storage systems, will be a service coordinated with primary regulation and will further contribute to the safety of the electricity system.

Voltage regulation

A new Pilot Project, called Fast Reserve , was recently launched, which introduced a new network service, characterized by a full activation time shorter than that of primary regulation.

This ultra-rapid frequency regulation service, also open to new types of resources including storage systems, will be a service coordinated with primary regulation and will further contribute to the safety of the electricity system.

An evolving electrical system

In recent years, we have been witnessing a strong transformation of the electricity system: on the one hand there is a strong growth in plants powered by non-programmable renewable sources and, on the other, an ever greater decommissioning of traditional thermoelectric plants capable of supplying ancillary services necessary to ensure the safe operation of the electricity grid.

All of this is leading to a reduction in the inertia of the electricity system and at the same time a reduction in the plants enabled to provide the network services described above.

For this reason, the Regulatory Authority for Energy, Networks and Environments ( ARERA ) with resolution 300/2017 has launched some Pilot Projects to test and evaluate the capacity of new resources (storage systems, demand, distributed generation) to provide ancillary services.

The ARERA website

UVAM pilot project

The UVAM – Mixed Enabled Virtual Units – are a virtual aggregate of electrical units (production plants or consumption sites) which, put together and coordinated by an aggregator (BSP), modulate their own power (at least 1MW in injection or withdrawal) to supply network regulation services.

The UVAM allow to enable to the service market, within the aggregate, non-relevant production units (UPNR – that is, the nominal power of which is less than 10MW), consumption units (UC) and “stand-alone” storage systems. alone “or integrated with UPNR.

Kenergia, together with experienced partners in the sector, creates aggregates between consumers, energy producers and accumulations to participate in the auctions of the UVAM project.

We are looking for small and medium-sized companies that can present, within their industrial processes, margins of flexibility to be used to provide the grid services requested by Terna and guarantee the customer a new economic income. To do this:

  • We analyze the company’s electricity consumption
  • We evaluate the electrical loads present
  • We carry out an inspection on the site
  • We identify the flexibility present in the company

Energy communities

With the conversion into law of the decree milleproroghe , Italy anticipated the transposition of the RED2 Directive, introducing an experimental phase in our country for the birth of energy communities.

An energy community is made up of a group of private citizens, businesses and commercial activities who decide to unite to create one or more renewable electricity production plants with the aim of sharing and self-consuming the energy produced. The energy produced by the plants belonging to the community and which is shared is entitled to an incentive rate of 110 € / MWh for 20 years.

With the current rules, all subjects whose connection point to the low voltage electricity grid is underlying the same secondary substation of the distributor can constitute an Energy Community. The size of renewable plants that can participate is limited to 200kW.

The complete implementation of the RED II European Directive is expected by June 2021, which will lead to the end of this first experimental phase and the overcoming of many of the constraints currently present in the current regulatory framework.

Kenergia is preparing to be able to identify and organize new Energy Communities in the light of the new regulations in the making.

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