Unconventional sources for electric substation ancillary services power supply

Ancillary services are support services within the power system, those which are necessary to support the transmission capacity and are essential in maintaining power quality, reliability and security of the grid. Considering these facts the supply method of the ancillary services is a key feature for the appropriate operation of the power system. Within this paper the authors are focusing on electric substation ancillary services. The paper addresses the issue of supplying them using unconventional energy sources, such as fuel cells. A critical analysis of the substation ancillary services power supply is performed. Several supply solutions are proposed, using normal and backup sources. The case study refers to a real substation from the Romanian Power System. The optimal solution using fuel cell for the substation ancillary services supplying is presented.