Virtual Power Plant Platforms and Their Applications in Practice: a Brief Review

VPP (Virtual power plant) is a new generation of power operation technology that aggregates and optimizes power generation, power networks, energy storages and power loads. It can greatly improve the flexibility of power system, help better utilize the distributed user side resources and promote the development of the electricity market. To facilitate the application and deployment of VPP, powerful and reliable VPP platforms are essential. However, at present, VPP is still at its early development stage. There still lacks systematic and comprehensive participation mechanism, control methods, and supporting software for VPP. In this work, current emerging VPP platforms and applications are investigated. The practices, functions and application scenarios of mainstream VPP platforms in China and abroad are reported in detail. The VPP operation modes, platform architecture design and key development purposes are also analyzed. Specially, the summary and inspirations for VPP platform development are introduced. It is expected that, with this review, the VPP platform practices can provide a reference for VPP platform construction, business model application, and key technology development.