About this event
Virtual Power Plants (VPPs) have begun a period of rapid expansion. Rethink Energy is joined by Uplight, Evergen, and Novatech Automation Systems to answer the question - just how far, and how fast, will Virtual Power Plants spread?
We’ve recently seen VPP schemes set in motion which by 2025 are to cover several percentage points of total peak load in markets as large as Germany and the metropolis of Shenzhen - with VPPs crossing the line from hundreds of MW each, to the multi-gigawatt scale. That is just the beginning as electrification, distributed energy resources and battery adoption all enter high gear.
Once intermittent solar and wind form a majority of the power mix, the grid’s ability to operate reliably will rely on battery energy storage. Those batteries will be governed by VPPs, making their financial and digital structures the most crucial element on the decarbonized grid of the future – with VPPs both providing strategic grid security and reaping the benefits of ever more variable power prices.
The fundamental purpose of a VPP is to decide when to discharge its batteries – as well as when to invoke demand response. This decision-making process relies on forecasts of demand and supply which are both becoming more complex and unpredictable as electrification and Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) progress. The more diverse the generation, battery, and demand response assets a VPP has, the better. With that in mind, and given that VPP adoption requires little to no physical infrastructure – we’re left asking what the real limiting factor is to this industry.
