Ancillary services by DG and storage systems in distribution networks for energy market participation

A regulatory effort is expected to be undertaken in the next years in order to foster the transition towards 'smart grids'. In this view, the ancillary services market framework needs to change in order to cater for the possible contribution coming from distribution networks. Recently, the Italian Authority for Electricity, Gas and Water proposed three new market models aiming at exploiting the contribution of the resources connected to distribution networks for the ancillary services provision to the bulk grid. In this context, storage systems could enhance significantly the availability of ancillary services meanwhile allowing a better management of distribution networks. This paper aims at investigating the possible contribution of storage units in the ancillary services provision by distribution networks.