Definition
1. A Virtual Power Plant is a network of decentralized, medium-scale power generating units such as Combined Heat and Power (CHP) units, wind farms and solar parks as well as flexible power consumers and batteries. The interconnected units are dispatched through the central control room of the Virtual Power Plant but nonetheless remain independent in their operation and ownership.
2. Virtual Power Plant is a cloud-based central or distributed control center that takes advantage of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and Internet of things (IoT) devices to aggregate the capacity of heterogeneous Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) including different types of dispatchable and non-dispatchable distributed generations (DG) units (e.g., CHPs, natural gas-fired reciprocating engines , small-scale wind power plants (WPPs), photovoltaics (PVs), run-of-river hydroelectricity plants, biomass, etc.), energy storage systems (ESS), and controllable or flexible loads (CL or FL) and form a coalition of heterogeneous DERs for the purpose of energy trading in the wholesale electricity markets and/or providing ancillary services for system operators on behalf of non-eligible individual DERs
Abbreviation
VPP
Synonyms
Decentralised power plant
Superterms
Dispatchable and non-dispatchable distributed generation
Subterms
Sources
https://www.next-kraftwerke.com/vpp/virtual-power-plant (1.); https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_power_plant (2.)
Author: Festus Anyangbe
