Expanding the Ambit of Ancillary Services in India — Implementation and Challenges

Ancillary services is one of the four essential pillars of market design; the other three being scheduling & despatch, imbalance handling and congestion management. The regulatory framework for ancillary services was introduced for the first time in India in 2015 and implemented in April 2016. Ancillary services have gained increased importance in today's restructured power systems to ensure reliable operation of the grid. This paper traces the experience gained in terms of improvements in the Indian power system operation since 2016. This paper also discusses the need for expanding the scope of ancillary services in India as advanced grid reliability services such as Fast Frequency Regulation, Reactive Support and Black Start. This would provide additional incentives to the deployment and operation of flexible resources.