On the concept and the interest of virtual power plant: Some results from the European project Fenix

Abstract

In order to manage distributed generation and to enhance its valorization within electrical distribution systems, the concept of virtual power plant (VPP) has emerged and is used by many research teams worldwide. It consists in aggregating various small size generating units to form a ldquosingle virtual generating unitrdquo that can behave as a conventional one. Such a concept is under development within the EU project FENIX. Two types of aggregation are considered by the FENIX project: the commercial virtual power plant (CVPP) that tackles the aggregation of small generating units with respect to market integration and the technical virtual power plant (TVPP) that tackles aggregation of these units with respect to services that can be offered to the grid. The voltage and congestion management of network are the two major services that are detailed in this paper.