Aggregation and Flexibility for Grids’ Operation: the EU Path Toward the Opening of the Ancillary Services Market to Distributed Energy Resources

The present paper proposes an analysis of EU policies related to the enabling of the Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) participation into the Ancillary Service Market (ASM). Indeed, the rising of renewables and DERs penetration in the power system recently called for the enlargement of the pool of actors that can actively participate in the grid balancing. Therefore, Europe, through directives and guidelines, is gradually fostering the involvement of DERs into the ASM. This paper firstly provides an overview of the regulations actually in place in the EU Member States concerning the participation of DERs into the energy markets. Then, a detailed analysis of the Italian framework is proposed. In the last years, Italy has undertaken a process aimed to increase the observability of DERs, through the installation of suitable monitoring and communication devices, and to enable the provision of ancillary services by dispersed units. The main features and the preliminary results of this process are analyzed and commented, highlighting the benefits and opportunities related to it.