What are Virtual Power Plants?

A Virtual Power Plant (VPP) is a network of distributed energy resources, such as rooftop solar, energy storage systems, and more, capable of acting as a supplier of energy to the grid or a micro-energy ecosystem.

But what does it mean?

To understand Virtual Power Plants, let’s take a brief scenario:

It’s 6.30 pm, and there is a high load on the energy grid catering to your locality. This means that the electricity demand is high, but the supply is temporarily low!

OR there is a power outage in your locality, and the energy grid cannot supply any power to the residential/commercial buildings in the area.

OR you are a proud owner of an electric vehicle and distributed energy resources, and you have extra energy stored in your EV (electric vehicle), rooftop solar, or battery storage system at home and can use some extra money by selling it.

In simpler terms, Virtual Power Plants, as the name suggests, are ‘virtual energy grids' that aggregate the collective capacity of distributed energy resources and storage units and supply the energy to the ‘actual energy grid’ or act as a grid to power up a small ecosystem of buildings.

Impacts of Implementing Virtual Power Plants

While virtual power plants are gaining more and more popularity after getting approval to compete in the wholesale power markets in 2020, here are some of the major impacts of VPPs:

• Lowering Peak Demand: Virtual power plants can provide energy during the peak demand, enabling the fulfilment of energy demand and helping with EV charging.
• eMobility as an Energy Source: Virtual power plants empower EV owners to provide their ‘EV power’ to the grid, enabling grid balancing and sustainable energy consumption.
• Minimizing Power Disruptions: While virtual power plants lower peak demand, they also ensure uninterrupted power supply during outages and disruptions and ensures optimal energy supply to EVs.
• Step towards Clean Energy: Renewable sources of energy, such as solar panels, support the use of virtual power plants, promoting clean energy for energy consumption and powering EVs, while reducing the reliance on traditional energy sources.
• DERs (Distributed Energy Sources) as a Source of Income: Leveraging in-house distributed energy resources (DERs) such as rooftop solar and energy storage systems empower the owners of DER to trade electricity and generate additional income.

How can we Help?

Virtual power plants are promising candidates for a successful, sustainable ecosystem, and we are here to help you efficiently leverage them! At SmarteMobility, we empower the stakeholders for a greener future with end-to-end eMobility and energy management solutions. Our intelligent hardware, AI/ML-powered software, and seasoned experts-led services enable holistic development and implementation of VPPs, DERs, and more! Connect with us to harness the ePower of tomorrow!