Take the "electricity reform" east wind China's virtual power plants help secure energy market

The so-called virtual power plant is not a physical power plant in the traditional sense, but a power coordination management system that realizes the aggregation and coordination optimization of distributed energy resources such as distributed power supply, energy storage system, controllable load, and electric vehicle through advanced information and communication technology and software systems, so as to participate in the power market and grid operation as a special power plant.

Its core idea is to gather dispersed adjustable resources through "communication" and "aggregation" to form a virtual "power plant" for unified management and scheduling.

In recent years, the Chinese government has attached great importance to the development of virtual power plants, introduced a number of policies to encourage their innovation and application, and clearly added virtual power plants as the main body of power trading. With the progress of technology and the opening of the market, China's virtual power plant industry has made remarkable progress and occupied a certain share in the global market.

According to the forecast of China Business Industry Research Institute, by 2025, China's cumulative installed capacity of virtual power plants will reach 39GW. In addition, the Shandong Regulatory Office of the National Energy Administration issued a notice of "Shandong's first virtual power plant registration into the market" on June 17, marking the official participation of the first domestic virtual power plants in power spot trading.

With the continuous advancement of China's electricity market reform, the initial formation of a multi-competition pattern, market reform has achieved initial results, and the role of the market in optimizing the allocation of resources has been enhanced. As an important force to promote the transformation and upgrading of China's power system and achieve the goal of green and low-carbon development, the role of virtual power plants is self-evident and its influence is broad and far-reaching.

First of all, China's virtual power plant can effectively improve the regulation capacity and flexibility of the power system by aggregating distributed resources and controllable loads. This will not only help ensure the safe and stable operation of the power system, but also cope with the intermittency and volatility of renewable energy generation. With the proposal of "dual carbon" goal, virtual power plant plays an important role in reducing the carbon emissions of power system operation and increasing the consumption of renewable energy.

Second, the development of virtual power plants in China will promote the liberalization and flexibility of the electricity market. By participating in power market transactions, virtual power plants can quickly respond to changes in market price and load demand, and increase market flexibility. In addition, technological advances in virtual power plants, such as blockchain-based model research, will further improve the security and transparency of transactions and stimulate market vitality.

Third, virtual power plants are of great significance in promoting the development of China's energy Internet. With the promotion of new energy technology and Internet technology, China's power system is evolving from smart grid to energy Internet. As an important part of the energy Internet, virtual power plant can realize the interconnection and collaborative optimization of various energy sources, effectively improve the regional comprehensive energy efficiency level and reduce environmental pollution.

Finally, the development of virtual power plants will also promote the low-carbon and economically balanced power system that China has been advocating. By considering load shifting, "carbon trade-green certificate" and other factors to establish a multi-objective scheduling optimization model, virtual power plants can ensure economic benefits, while achieving an effective balance between low-carbon and economic.

In short, the development of virtual power plants in China has a positive impact on improving the stability of the power system, promoting the consumption of renewable energy, increasing the flexibility of the power market, and promoting the development of the energy Internet.

At the same time, virtual power plants also help to achieve the low-carbon and economic balance of China's power system, for China's energy transformation and green development has contributed an indispensable force, up to now, China's virtual power plant industry in policy support, technological innovation and market applications have made proud of significant progress, the future development prospects and huge potential.