The Renewable Energy Podcast

Ep05 - Virtual Power Plants: Architecture, Operation, and Economics

The source provides an overview of Virtual Power Plants (VPPs), defining them as aggregated networks of diverse, small-scale energy resources (DERs) like solar, wind, storage, and controllable loads, coordinated by a central system. It explains that VPPs act collectively as a unified power plant, providing grid stability, reliability, and economic value by balancing supply and demand, especially with increasing renewable integration. The text further details the different types of VPPs (Supply-Side, Demand-Side, and Hybrid), their core components including communication protocols and management platforms, and the complex cash flow mechanisms that govern the financial interactions between DER owners, VPP operators, utilities, and grid operators.