Focus on the development of virtual power plants: it is of great significance to ensure the safe operation of the power system

This summer, hot weather continued to occur in many places around the world, and the electricity load increased sharply. How to interact with power grid supply and demand through user-side resources to relieve power grid load pressure has become a hot issue, and it is also the purpose of some cities and new energy companies to accelerate pilot virtual power plant projects. In the context of the global promotion of green energy transformation, the development of virtual power plants is of great significance to promote the balance of power grid supply and demand, realize low-cost grid connection of distributed energy, fully consume clean energy, and ensure the safe operation of power systems.

The concept of "virtual power plant" has been proposed for nearly 20 years. A virtual power plant is not a physical power plant, but an energy management system that aggregates distributed energy resources such as clean energy, energy storage systems, and controllable loads on the user side through advanced metering, information communication, control, and management technologies. And coordinate and optimize, participate in power grid operation. It can be installed in the control terminals of factory workshops, shopping malls, large-scale electrical equipment, and include air-conditioning, lighting and other loads into the control sequence, and achieve a balance between supply and demand through scientific regulation without affecting the normal production of enterprises and the normal life of residents. For example, during peak electricity consumption, the virtual power plant can realize the interaction between a large number of shopping mall loads and the power grid. By raising the indoor temperature of the shopping mall by 1 to 2 degrees Celsius, the air conditioning load of the shopping mall can be greatly reduced without customers noticing it, and the power consumption of the grid can be alleviated. pressure. The virtual power plant can also provide support for the safe operation of the power grid through the aggregation management and integrated control of new energy and energy storage systems such as distributed photovoltaics and wind power on the user side.

Since 2000, Germany, France, the United States and other countries have carried out a series of research and verification of virtual power plants, and some projects have achieved a certain scale of commercial application. China has also carried out pilot projects of virtual power plants in Jiangsu, Shanghai, Hebei, Guangdong, Tianjin and other places. Each country has its own emphasis on the research and application of virtual power plants according to their actual application scenarios. Europe focuses on the aggregation of power generation resources, focusing on how to achieve reliable grid connection of distributed power sources, intelligent interaction and participation in the power market. The United States focuses on resource aggregation on the electricity side, and some states are experimenting with home virtual power plant technology, integrating more rooftop photovoltaics and energy storage, and expanding the scope of time-based tariff pilots. China's virtual power plant projects have achieved remarkable results in regulating load-side resources and participating in demand response. At the same time, they have made active explorations in distributed power generation, controllable loads, and energy storage resource coordination. The "14th Five-Year Plan for Modern Energy System" further emphasizes the need to develop virtual power plants that aggregate various resources such as industrial adjustable loads, building air-conditioning loads, big data center loads, user-side energy storage, and the interaction of new energy vehicles and grid energy. demonstration.

To accelerate the development of virtual power plants, it is necessary to continuously achieve technological breakthroughs, improve the intelligent aggregation and interactive control capabilities of user-side power resources, and develop a powerful operation decision support platform to meet the multi-market operation environment and complex system operation. For example, it is necessary to develop dynamic cluster identification and response capability quantitative analysis technology, blockchain trusted transaction technology, etc. With the rapid development of household distributed power, electric vehicles, and energy storage, ordinary residents can also participate in the value creation of virtual power plants and become important members of virtual power plants.

In the future, we need to further improve the main body identification, access, transaction and settlement rules for virtual power plants to participate in the power market, and guide virtual power plants to participate in the power market and power peaking auxiliary services through top-level design and standard formulation. At the same time, give full play to the advantages of large-scale installed capacity of distributed renewable energy in China, and aggregate a large number of photovoltaic and energy storage equipment through virtual power plants to achieve economies of scale, reduce electricity consumption and infrastructure investment costs, and improve power grid security.