The energy transition involves widespread adoption of renewable energy sources and a concurrent reduction in thermoelectric generation. This results in a decrease in resources available for frequency regulation, inertia, and short-circuit power, which must be compensated for with alternative resources and solutions. Assessing the adequacy of flexibility resources for the stability of the power system is therefore essential: this document presents three related activities.

The first activity involves updating the tool for mono-zonal (single-bus equivalent) assessment of resources for conventional frequency regulation (slow regulation: primary, secondary, and tertiary) and short-circuit power. The tool has been updated for multi-zonal analysis of active power reserve and has been prepared for multi-zonal developments concerning short-circuit power. Application to a national scenario for 2030 has revealed potential issues in meeting secondary and tertiary reserve requirements due to the limited availability of thermoelectric generation, based on significant decarbonization assumptions.

The second activity focuses on the evolution of the “SeTA” (SErvizi innovativi: Tuning Automatico) procedure for optimizing ultra-fast frequency regulation services. A new iterative approach has been implemented to improve accuracy in identifying equivalent output-error models of the power system used for sizing the necessary regulation quantities. The new approach, even in the identification phase, considers the contribution of innovative regulations. Application to a 2030 scenario for the Sardinian system highlights that fast primary regulation is crucial. Synthetic inertia is shown to be necessary if the three new synchronous compensators planned are not implemented.

The third activity involves defining specifications for an integrated analysis platform for slow and ultra-fast frequency regulation resources. In light of the developments achieved in the above-calculated procedures, automating the acquisition of preliminary market simulation results for analysis appears to be a priority.