Section 6 Ancillary Services

IFM Procurement and Prices

Table 6.1 hows the monthly IFM average ancillary service procurements and Table 6.2 the monthly average prices. In February the monthly average procurement decreased for all four types of ancillary services. The monthly average prices increased for all four types of ancillary services this month.

Table 6.1: IFM Monthly Average Ancillary Service Procurement
Month Feb-2021 Jan-2021 Percent Change
Regulation_Up 402 420 -4.29%
Regulation_Down 617 707 -12.73%
Spin 841 974 -13.66%
Non-Spin 843 974 -13.45%
Table 6.2: IFM Monthly Average Ancillary Service Price
Month Feb-2021 Jan-2021 Percent Change
Non-Spin $0.88 $0.13 562%
Regulation_Down $22.04 $11.87 86%
Regulation_Up $13.93 $5.88 137%
Spin $8.34 $2.35 255%

Figure 6.1 shows the daily IFM average ancillary service prices. On February 13-18, the average prices for regulation up, regulation down and spinning reserve were elevated due to high opportunity cost of energy, which was driven by high gas prices.

Figure 6.1: IFM (Day-Ahead) Ancillary Service Average Price

IFM (Day-Ahead) Ancillary Service Average Price

Scarcity Events

The ancillary services scarcity pricing mechanism is triggered when the ISO is not able to procure the target quantity of one or more ancillary services in the IFM and real-time market runs. The scarcity events in Febnuary are shown in the Table 6.3 below, which are all in the real-time market.

Table 6.3: Ancillary Service Scarcity Events
Date Hour Ending Interval Ancillary Service Region Shortfall Percentage of requirement
Feb-26 15 1,2,3,4 Regulation Down NP26_EXP 0.11 0.0400%