Opening the ancillary service market: new market opportunities for energy storage systems in Italy

Along with energy policy updates at European level, Italy recently opened its ancillary service market for distributed energy resources. This paper investigates the newly accruing market opportunities for an exemplary battery energy storage system of 1 MW. Based on effective market behavior, derived from a two years data set with hourly resolution, the study provides a comprehensive evaluation of economic options. Two operation modes are therefore confronted, providing upward and downward balancing services in combination with the intraday electricity market. Additionally, different bidding strategies are applied and the economic potential in the different Italian market zones is assessed.