Provision of ancillary services in future low-carbon UK electricity system

Integration of intermittent RES into the electricity system imposes a considerable demand for additional flexibility. This paper analyses the challenges on the provision of ancillary services and potential solutions from emerging flexible technologies (including flexible generation, energy storage, demand side response and interconnection) in the future UK electricity system. The results suggest that the cost of reserve and response services in 2030 may increase up to 1.23 B£ and 1.04 B£, respectively. Alternative flexible technologies have been demonstrated to play an important role in the provision of ancillary services, although the benefits vary among different technologies. Furthermore, these flexible technologies can also reduce carbon emission and hence the required amount of high-cost low-carbon generation to achieve the same carbon target.