Virtual Power Plant in Industry 4.0: The Strategic Planning of Emerging Virtual Power Plant in Kazakhstan

Today, in the era of Industry 4.0 with total automation of the cloud data bus and domestic energy production the concept of the Virtual Power Plant (VPP) is entering global power sector to facilitate the integration and management of distributed power units relying on real-time communication and uniform control. The motivation behind VPP is to solve a problem of variable profile and uncertainty of power generated by DG units that is found to be challenging when building reliable DG-aided power plant. This paper aims to propose the potential location for the VPP in Kazakhstan and to recommend roadmap planning for its realization based on the results and estimates conducted in the scope of simulations. It was revealed that there is promising possibility to locate VPP on the territory of South Kazakhstan, Jambyl and Almaty regions due to concentration of high capacity renewable energy plants and efficient operation of Energy Management System (EMS) revealed from the simulation results. Emergence of the VPP may contribute to further development of the renewable power grid provided financial aid to facilitate technologies and to promote the prosumer status of households is attracted.