Virtual Power Plants for Grid Support: Managing High DER Penetration in Modern Distribution Systems

#energy-resources #distributed-energy-resources #virtual-power-plants

The concept of Virtual Power Plants (VPPs) has emerged as a promising approach to manage the growing operational challenges associated with high penetration of distributed energy resources (DERs) in distribution systems. By aggregating distributed assets, VPPs enable coordinated control of flexible resources at the customer level. However, in an open market environment where multiple VPPs may coexist within the same distribution network, new technical challenges arise in ensuring secure and reliable operation. In particular, the coordination of multiple VPPs must account for network constraints across the distribution feeder.

To address these challenges, this work proposes a two-layer VPP dispatch framework. The upper layer determines feasible operating envelopes for each VPP by solving a network-constrained optimal power flow problem, capturing the impact of aggregated resources on the distribution system. The lower layer performs VPP-level dispatch within these limits, ensuring that individual resource schedules remain compliant with network constraints. This framework enables scalable and coordinated deployment of multiple VPPs while maintaining system reliability and operational feasibility.