Integrated energy and ancillary services provision in multi-energy systems

Multi-energy systems (MES) in which operation and planning of electricity networks is optimally framed within a context of interaction with other energy vectors such as heat, cooling and gas, are receiving increasing interest from the point of view of providing flexibility to the power system. In this outlook, MES have the potential to provide real time demand response services by deploying the possibility to internally shift energy vectors between different plant components, thus decreasing the equivalent electricity input from the grid. This could be particularly relevant to provide ancillary services to future systems. On these premises, the aim of this paper is to set out a framework for the techno-economic assessment of integrated provision of energy and ancillary services from MES while supplying local multi-energy demand. The concepts of fuel-to-power arbitrage or equivalently of multi-energy arbitrage, electricity shifting potential, and ancillary services profitability maps are introduced and discussed to synthesize the developed framework. Specific numerical applications are presented to illustrate through case studies the implications of the proposed concepts.