Opportunities for DERs in Ancillary Services Markets: analysis and deployment strategies in a national framework

Ancillary Services Markets (ASMs) in Europe are evolving to welcome Distributed Energy Resources (DERs). For such a goal, several issues have to be addressed; among them, market transparency and economic efficiency is one of the most sensitive, especially within central dispatch systems such as the Italian one. This is crucial not to favor market incumbents, and to ensure an adequate learning curve for newcomers. In this paper an analysis of Italian ASM dynamics is provided to highlight possible business opportunities for DERs. In particular, a spatial analysis of accepted and presented market bids has been performed. Results point out a heterogeneous statistic for awarded bids: many offers are awarded even if their price is largely not convenient (so-called 'extreme' bids), thus in contrast with an economic efficiency principle. The paper studies the topology of these strategic bidders and the consequent potential benefit coming from DERs deployment in strategic areas. Results allow to draw some suggestions for both market operators and regulatory authorities.