From Virtual Power Plant to Real Electricity: Summary and Prospect of Virtual Power Plant Research

Abstract

With a large number of distributed energy resources connected to the grid,virtual power plants as a distributed energy management technology have received a lot of attention because of their flexibility,efficiency and sustainability. This paper briefly discussed the background of virtual power plants, analyzed the hot directions and emerging directions in virtual power plants,and introduced the composition and structure of virtual power plants. According to the different goals and functions of virtual power plants,virtual power plants can be divided into mission-driven virtual power plants, economy-driven virtual power plants and hybrid driven virtual power plants. On this basis, the different operation modes and different solution methods of different types of virtual power plants were further discussed. Finally,the future development prospects of virtual power plants were prospected.

Keywords

• virtual power plant
• energy market
• flexible resources
• distributed energy resources