The importance of virtual power plants
Wind power and photovoltaic power generation are increasingly used due to their economic and environmental protection advantages, but there are still many problems. Their intermittency, volatility, and randomness bring power grid security challenges and The problem of accommodation continues to increase, affecting the stable operation, management and maintenance of the power system. The
virtual power plant provides a new idea for solving the large-scale grid connection of new energy. It has the ability of resource aggregation and can play an important role in the new power system with renewable energy and clean energy as the main body:
1. The virtual power plant absorbs power storage and releases power for sale, matching energy resources in the power grid through market supply and demand, and improving the efficiency of power grid transmission and distribution. For example, during periods of tight power supply, virtual power plants can directly dispatch a large number of scattered charging piles, air conditioners, energy storage and other power resources to reduce power consumption.
2. The construction of virtual power plants can also save investment in traditional power plants and power grids, and its investment cost is about 1/8 of that of thermal power plants. In the past, peak shaving and valley filling in the power system were basically achieved through thermal power plants. According to calculations, meeting 5% of the peak load may require an investment of 400 billion in power plants and supporting power grids; through virtual power plants, construction, operation, incentives and other links The investment only requires 50 billion to 80 billion yuan.
Source: State Grid
The concept of virtual power plant
Virtual Power Plant (VPP, Virtual Power Plant) is to aggregate various distributed and adjustable power sources and loads, achieve unified regulation and management through a new generation of ICT technology, and participate in the operation of the power system. The energy coordination management system and power market transaction are an effective form of realizing the coordination and interaction of source, grid, load and storage under the market mechanism. The concept of
"virtual power plant" was first proposed in 1997 by Dr. Shimon Awerbuch in his book "Virtual Public Utilities: Description, Technology and Competitiveness of Emerging Industries": Virtual public facilities are independent and A flexible collaboration between market-driven entities that can provide consumers with the efficient electrical energy services they need without owning the corresponding assets. The
virtual power plant does not change the way each distributed energy source is connected to the grid. Instead, it aggregates different types of distributed energy sources such as distributed power sources, energy storage systems, and controllable loads through advanced control, metering, information and communication technologies. And through a higher-level software architecture, the autonomous coordination and optimal control of multiple distributed energy sources are realized, which is conducive to the rational utilization and allocation of resources.
Source: State Grid Shanghai Economic Research Institute
The future development of virtual power plants
As an important form of energy aggregation in smart grids and energy Internet , virtual power plants play an important role in balancing the supply and demand side of the power grid, greatly alleviating peak power consumption. The tension plays the role of cutting peaks and filling valleys. The virtual power plant is an important technology for realizing intelligent dispatching of the power grid and deepening the power trading system. It aggregates controllable power generation and power consumption ports such as adjustable loads, energy storage, microgrids, charging piles, and distributed power sources in different spaces, thereby achieving overall According to the coordinated optimization control, the virtual power plant can be subdivided into two categories: "load type" and "source grid load storage integration" according to the resource category of aggregation optimization.
Currently, many regions in my country have issued guidelines for the “virtual power plant” action plan. Zhejiang, Shanxi, Guangdong and other places continue to explore the use of virtual power plant projects to actively respond to the demand for peak shaving and valley filling to improve the operating efficiency of the power system.
With the advancement of power trading marketization, my country's virtual power plants will transform into transaction-based virtual power plants with spot transactions as the main way of profit. Judging from the power spot trading pilot situation and power shortage situation in various provinces, it is expected that Guangdong, Zhejiang, and Jiangsu will be the first to develop virtual power plants; virtual power plant projects will also gradually shift from focusing on aggregating controllable loads to aggregating a variety of distributed power generation, Comprehensive project development of energy storage resources.
