Development and practice of business model of the

Development and practice of business model of virtual power plant

as countries around the world promote the development of clean and low-carbon new energy systems, the proportion of re electrification of distributed renewable power sources, electric vehicles and end users has increased significantly. For China facing the "contradiction between power shortage and low energy efficiency", the solution of "virtual power plant" has great market potential in China, which is undoubtedly a good choice

I. overview of virtual power plant

virtual power plant is a carrier that organically combines distributed generating units, controllable loads and distributed energy storage facilities, and realizes the integrated regulation and control of all kinds of distributed energy through supporting regulation technology and communication technology, so as to participate in the power market and power operation as a special power plant. In a sense, the virtual power plant can be regarded as an advanced regional centralized power management mode. Through a set of intelligent control system, the power generation of the power plant and the power consumption of users can be balanced. The power plant here is not only the central power plant we see, but also includes unstable power generation equipment such as wind power generation and solar power generation. The core of the concept of virtual power plant can be summarized as "communication" and "aggregation". Its most attractive function is to aggregate distributed energy to participate in the operation of power market and auxiliary service market, and provide management and auxiliary services for distribution and transmission

II. Advantages of virtual power plant over traditional distributed power generation

in September 2018, the installed capacity of wind power and solar power in China increased by 44% and 191% annually, much higher than the global average growth rate. However, due to the randomness, intermittency and volatility of wind and solar energy, large-scale and high proportion access will bring a series of challenges to the balance of power system and the safe operation of electricity. The solution of virtual power plant can effectively deal with these problems

(I) virtual power plant can get rid of the geographical limitations of traditional micro

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at present, China mostly adopts the concept of micro as the merger form of distributed power generation, which can well coordinate the technical contradiction between large power and distributed power generation, and has a certain energy management function. However, micro takes distributed power generation and local application of users as the main control target, and is limited by geographical regions. For multi region The effective utilization of large-scale distributed energy and its large-scale benefits in the power market have certain limitations. The virtual power plant does not change the way in which each distributed power source merges, but aggregates different types of distributed energy sources such as distributed power sources, energy storage systems, controllable loads, electric vehicles, etc. through advanced control, measurement, communication and other technologies, and realizes the coordinated and optimized operation of multiple distributed energy sources through a higher-level software architecture, which is more conducive to the rational and optimal allocation and utilization of resources

(II) the solution idea of virtual power plant can produce economies of scale

traditional active power distribution is another effective solution to realize large-scale distributed power generation and operation. It expands the access radius of distributed power generation to a certain extent, and can implement active management of power distribution, but it does not consider the benefits that distributed power generation can present to large-scale power and power market. The proposal of virtual power plant provides a new way to solve these problems. Virtual power plants emphasize more on the external functions and effects, update the operation concept and generate social and economic benefits. Its basic application scenario is the power market. This method does not need to transform electricity, but can aggregate distributed generation to deliver electricity stably to the public, and provide auxiliary services with rapid response. It has become an effective method for distributed generation to join the power market, reducing the imbalance risk of its lonely operation in the market, and can obtain the benefits of economies of scale

III. main development methods of virtual power plant

(I) commercial

commercial virtual power plant is a virtual power plant considered from the perspective of commercial income, and it is a flexible expression of distributed power portfolio. Its basic function is to formulate the optimal power generation plan based on user demand, load forecasting and power generation potential forecasting, and participate in market bidding. Commercial virtual power plants do not consider the impact of virtual power plants on distribution, and add distributed generation to the power market in the same way as traditional power plants. Each distributed generator in the commercial virtual power plant portfolio submits information such as operating parameters and marginal cost to it. After integrating these input data, a unique configuration file is created, which represents the joint capacity of all distributed power sources in the portfolio. Combined with market intelligence, commercial virtual power plants will optimize the potential income of the investment portfolio, formulate power generation plans, and participate in market bidding with traditional power plants. Once the bidding is authorized by the market, the commercial virtual power plant will sign a contract with the power trading center and the forward market, and submit the distributed generation schedule and operation cost information to the technical virtual power plant

(II) technological

technological virtual power plant is a virtual power plant considered from the perspective of system management. It considers the real-time impact of distributed power aggregation on the local network, and represents the cost and non-toxic, pollution-free and odor free characteristics of the investment portfolio. The services and functions provided by the technology-based virtual power plant include providing system management for DSO (distribution system operator operating at 110 kV and below) and system balancing and auxiliary services for Tso (transmission system operator operating at the highest voltage level). In the local network, the operation parameters, generation plan, market bidding and other information of distributed generation are provided by commercial virtual power plants. The technical virtual power plant integrates the data and network information (topology, constraints, etc.) provided by the commercial virtual power plant, calculates the contribution of each distributed power source in the local system, and forms the cost and operation characteristics of the technical virtual power plant. The cost and operation characteristics of the technology-based virtual power plant are evaluated by Tso together with the traditional power plant. Once the technology is confirmed, the technology-based virtual power plant will control the distributed power generation to implement the power generation plan

IV. virtual power plant Shanghai practice

in the "13th five year plan" of Shanghai's power development, the Huangpu District commercial building virtual power plant, which is composed of many distributed energy storage devices, has become a unique case of Shanghai's power system reform and intelligent power construction. In January, 2018, Baolong building, located on Jiujiang Road, Huangpu District, participated in the trial operation of the virtual power plant for the eighth time, with a "power generation" capacity of 100 kW. Baolong building is just a project of Huangpu District virtual power plant. So far, the largest trial operation of the virtual power plant has involved more than 50 buildings and released about 10000 kW of load. Keeping dynamic balance between power generation and consumption is an important guarantee for stable level operation. In recent years, with the adjustment of industrial structure and the improvement of living standards in Shanghai, the peak valley difference of power has been increasing. In order to ensure the safety of power supply during peak hours, Shanghai power has to retain a large number of redundant power generation capacity, resulting in a waste of resources. The appearance of virtual power plant solves this problem

the traditional demand response resource call, such as the load control platform, is actually equivalent to a standby peak shaving unit. During the peak period of power consumption, the power dispatching department starts the platform to issue manual load reduction instructions to the agreement users, or remotely switch off and limit power. This method is simple and extensive, and the user experience is also poor. What the virtual power plant wants to achieve is flexible load control. The flexible load can be flexible within a certain period of time, which can achieve the purpose of reducing or increasing the load without affecting users. At present, participating in this will also give the extruder industry endless development power. There are a wide range of flexible loads that respond to demand. Taking the central air conditioning as an example, during the peak period of power consumption in summer, the response system relies on sophisticated information technology, and through the control of dozens of characteristic parameter variables such as the preset temperature of the air conditioning, fan speed, air supply volume, fresh air volume, chilled water pump flow, chilled water inlet temperature, it can achieve the purpose of flexible adjustment of the air conditioning load without stopping the machine and affecting the use of users

v. German practice of virtual power plant

in 2008, the Federal Ministry of economy and technology of Germany launched the "e-energy" plan, the goal of which is to establish an intelligent power system that can basically realize self-regulation, in which information and communication technology is the key to achieve this purpose. E-energy is also part of the German green it pioneer action plan, with a total investment of 140million euros, including smart power generation, smart electricity, smart consumption and smart energy storage. In order to develop and test different core elements of smart electricity respectively, the Federal Ministry of economy and technology of Germany selected six pilot projects through technology competition. Among the six energy interconnection projects supported by the "e-energy" plan, Hartz project is a typical case of maximizing the use of new energy, and the most striking part is the virtual power plant

the Hartz area selected by the project has many ways of distributed power supply, such as wind energy, pumped storage, solar energy, biogas, biomass energy and electric vehicles. In terms of transmission and distribution, it is mainly operated by 6 distribution operators, 4 power retailers and 1 transmission operator. The virtual power plant communicates with the distributed power supply. Unlike the original traditional large-scale power plant, the new energy system data changes rapidly, and the transmission technology with high safety and stability is very necessary. Therefore, a unified data transmission standard is formulated in this project, so that the virtual power plant can quickly respond to data changes. While considering the power generation end, the virtual power plant also pays attention to the reaction of the power side. In the sample in Hartz area, household users have installed an energy management system, which is called "two-way energy management system" (bemi for short). The data shows that the energy management system installed by users stores users' power consumption data every 15 minutes, records users' daily power consumption habits, and transmits these data to the database of the virtual power plant through the network. At the same time, the bemi system can also control the socket of the switch wirelessly. When the electricity price changes, the time and power consumption can be adjusted and controlled wirelessly

VI. issues needing attention in the development of virtual power plants

(I) encouraging users to actively participate in virtual power plants

virtual power plants are still a new concept in China, and users and distributed energy owners know little about them. However, the implementation of virtual power plants requires the support of users and a large number of private distributed power sources, which requires relevant departments to actively publicize the benefits of participating in virtual power plants, and develop a series of incentive mechanisms to establish virtual power plant pilot projects in different regions

(II) reasonably plan the scope and functions of virtual power plants

although virtual power plants can represent the needs of different distributed energy owners and provide a variety of services for the system, in the case of China's imperfect power market, in order to avoid confusion in management and scheduling, the scope and functions of virtual power plants should be reasonably planned, such as in urban areas and other load intensive areas, using controllable loads to form virtual power plants as system backup, Or reduce peak power consumption; In rural or suburban areas, large-scale distributed energy and energy storage constitute virtual power plants to achieve stable and continuous power supply to the system

(III) formulate reasonable competition mechanism and targeted policies, and improve the operation mechanism of the power market

the utility of virtual power plants is basically the same as that of traditional power plants, but the sources of power generation are rich and diverse. For encouragement