Ancillary services

Ancillary services are energy products used to help maintain grid stability and reliability. Ancillary services certification is required for participating generators and participating load to bid ancillary services. The Ancillary Services Certification Test Request Form, procedure and process flowchart are available through the links below. 

Contact the Ancillary Services Test Administrator at ASNotifications@caiso.com with any questions.   
 

There are four types of ancillary services products: regulation up, regulation down, spinning reserve and non-spinning reserve.

Regulation energy is used to control system frequency, which must be maintained very narrowly around 60 hertz, and varies as generators change their energy output. Resources providing regulation are certified by the ISO and must respond to automatic control signals to increase or decrease their operating levels depending upon the need.

Spinning reserve is standby capacity from generation units already connected or synchronized to the grid and that can deliver their energy in 10 minutes when dispatched. Non-spinning reserve is capacity that can be synchronized to the grid and ramped to a specified load within 10 minutes.

Documents required for participation

Generators and loads must establish and maintain telemetry with the ISO Energy Management System (EMS) in accordance with the specifications and standards provided in the GCP and the PLP.

Participating generator
Participating load