Flexible Ramping Services in Power Systems: Background, Challenges, and Procurement Methods

Abstract

In recent years, the share of renewable energy sources (RES) in electricity generation portfolio has been growing, primarily supported by local and international energy policies to reduce the carbon footprint of the electricity sector. However, the large-scale integration of variable and uncertain RES has adverse effects on the power system operations. Therefore, the power system operators should apply advanced scheduling models and enhance the flexibility of the systems to compensate for the variability and uncertainty of RES. To deal with these challenges and covering the ramp scarcities and severe contingencies, not only more operational reserves are required but also the urgent actions is needed to develop the efficient markets, contracts, incentive mechanisms, effective scheduling models, and managerial approaches for encouraging suppliers to participate in flexibility procurement. This paper provides a background of the problem and a comprehensive review of the literature about flexible ramping markets and its procurement mechanisms.