Section 6 Ancillary Services

IFM Procurement and Prices

Table 6.1 shows the monthly IFM average ancillary service procurement and Table 6.2 shows the monthly IFM average ancillary service prices.

In July the monthly IFM average procurement increased for spinning, regulation up and decreased for regulation down and non-spinning reserves compared to the previous month. The monthly IFM average prices decreased for regulation up, regulation down, non-spinning reserves and increased for spinning reserves compared to the previous month.

Table 6.1: IFM Monthly Average Ancillary Service Procurement
Month Jun-2025 Jul-2025 Percent Change
Regulation_Up 407 450 10.6%
Regulation_Down 938 916 -2.3%
Spin 875 894 2.2%
Non-Spin 886 822 -7.2%
Table 6.2: IFM Monthly Average Ancillary Service Price
Ancillary Service Jun-2025 Jul-2025 Percent Change
Non-Spin $0.68 $0.65 -5.1%
Regulation_Down $6.58 $4.97 -24.5%
Regulation_Up $2.97 $2.65 -10.7%
Spin $0.67 $0.68 2.6%

Figure 6.1 shows the daily IFM average ancillary service prices.

Day-ahead ancillary service prices were volatile in July. Prices for regulation up, spinning reserves, and non-spinning reserves were lower than those for regulation down. Additionally, the average price for regulation down showed a slight decline compared to the June. The likely reason is that renewable generation declines, leading to reduced curtailment, as well as a lower need for regulation down.

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

IFM (Day-Ahead) Ancillary Service Average Price

Daily average ancillary procurement and prices in the real-time market (FMM) are shown in the Appendix.

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 this month are shown in Table 6.3 below.

Table 6.3: Ancillary Service Scarcity Events
Date Hour Ending Interval Ancillary Service Region Shortfall Percentage of requirement