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

Table 6.1: IFM Monthly Average Ancillary Service Procurement
Month Apr-2025 May-2025 Percent Change
Regulation_Up 559 542 -3.04%
Regulation_Down 1072 1047 -2.33%
Spin 559 702 25.58%
Non-Spin 1101 912 -17.17%
Table 6.2: IFM Monthly Average Ancillary Service Price
Ancillary Service Apr-2025 May-2025 Percent Change
Non-Spin $0.79 $0.82 3.6%
Regulation_Down $7.93 $7.10 -10.5%
Regulation_Up $4.46 $3.90 -12.6%
Spin $1.02 $0.81 -21.0%

Figure 6.1 shows the daily IFM average ancillary service prices.

Day-ahead ancillary service prices were volatile in May. 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 early days of May.

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