REserviceS
REserviceS (Economic grid support from variable renewables) was the first study to investigate wind and solar based grid support services at EU level. It has provided technical and economic guidelines and recommendations for the design of a European market for ancillary services, as well as for future network codes within the Third Liberalisation Package.
Electricity grids must be operated safely and efficiently, and technical services provided to transmission and distribution system operators are an essential part of ensuring this. Such services include controlling the frequency and voltage as well as providing reserves. Generaly, these so-called ancillary services are provided by large dispatchable power plants. As the share of renewables in the overall energy system continues to rise – regionally expected to meet up to 50% of electricity demand by 2020 – a drastic change in strategy for the procurement of ancillary services is required.
REserviceS encouraged the efficient and economic deployment of large shares of renewable energy sources by exploring how wind and solar photovoltaic (PV) plants can provide such services in the future European power system.
Please download here the results from September 2014:
- Final report (under: results)
- Recommendations leaflet in English, French, Spanish, German, Polish and Romanian (under: results)
- Outcome and presentations of the Final Event (under: events)
The launch of the publication was also announced in a press release: A 50% share of variable renewables can save up to 6% on system costs
Goals
REserviceS investigated the opportunities and costs of providing ancillary services from wind and PV systems by:
- analysing the needs for ancillary services (e.g. voltage and frequency support) in the European power system, with a growing share of variable renewables;
- identifying which ancillary services wind and PV can provide and which are of interest to system operators, today and in the future;
- analysing factors influencing the provision of ancillary services by wind and PV;
- creating a European harmonised method to calculate the costs for ancillary services provided by wind and PV.
This way, REserviceS encouraged the completion of an EU single electricity market with cost-efficient integration of variable renewables, improved grid management, and increased electricity system security.
Actions
Detailed information on these four sets of actions and their results can be found on the results page of this website.

