A control strategy for participation of DSO flexible resources in TSO ancillary services provision

The growing penetration of distributed energy resources (DER) in distribution networks makes the power systems more vulnerable to congestion issues. However, these resources may offer new opportunities to grid operators, if they are properly managed for ancillary services (AS) provision. In this scenario, innovative methodologies and control schemes are required to enable a collaborative power system management by transmission and distribution system operators (TSOs and DSOs). In this paper, an innovative congestion control methodology is developed for enabling flexible DER connected at distribution level to participate in AS provisions for solving TSOs congestion problems. The methodology is based on a self-contained control, and will be later included in the INTEgrated opeRation PLANning tool for the Pan-European Network, which represents the main outcome of INTERPLAN H2020 project. The control methodology effectiveness is tested in the presence of specific congestion events by using a Benchmark Network model, namely an IEEE 14-bus system available in Powerfactory DigSilent environment. Results of simulation tests show that the proposed methodology is an effective tool for exploiting flexibility potential of DER to mitigate congestion issues in transmission grid networks.