The rapid growth of DERs (distributed energy resources), which include solar PV, wind turbines and energy storage systems, has fundamentally changed the energy landscape. However, the variability of DERs can pose significant challenges to utilities responsible for the transmission or distribution of energy.
Dwibin Thomas and Nishandra Baijnath of Schneider Electric.
The effective management of these resources requires sophisticated control systems that can balance supply and demand in real time, ensuring grid stability and reliability and optimising asset performance.
Here, Dwibin Thomas, Cluster Automation Leader, and Nishandra Baijnath, Systems Architect, Power Systems, Anglophone Africa at Schneider Electric outline how virtual power plants (VPPs) can play an important part in establishing a grid that offers stable and reliable supply. Aggregating and controlling DERs with a VPP offers several benefits to utilities.
- Efficient management – DERs are difficult to control individually as they are typically decentralised. By aggregating the resources, VPPs create a single, controllable supply that can be dispatched as and when needed, based on energy demand.
- Optimised usage – VPPs can forecast the renewable output and the capacity of DER assets which assist utilities in making informed decisions about asset dispatch, considering factors such as weather patterns and market conditions.
- Cost savings – by aggregating and managing DERs, VPPs mitigate the need for expensive upgrades to existing infrastructure and increase the efficiency of energy distribution. This can result in lower energy costs for consumers and more reliable energy supply for utilities.
- VPPs offer asset performance management, forecast management, monitoring and alerting, market process management, asset dispatch management, analysis, and reporting functions.
VPPs can provide forecasting of DER resources such as solar or wind power and this enables utilities to plan effectively for the availability and variability of DER resources.
In turn this allows for the comparison of forecast results against previous versions and enables the tracking of changes in forecast accuracy. Forecast versioning also enables the VPP to maintain a historical record of forecast results, which can be used for analysis and reporting.
VPPs can manage and compare forecasts from multiple sources, such as different weather services, to provide accurate and reliable information. By comparing forecasts from different sources, VPPs can identify discrepancies and adjust their forecast accordingly to ensure the most accurate prediction of DER output.
VPPs in action
Schneider Electric’s AutoGrid VPP technology has been implemented successfully at a California-based utility company. The technology is used to aggregate and manage DERs, including residential hybrid inverters, solar panels, and battery storage systems. Optimisation of the generation and energy storage based on time of day and state of charge allows for optimal coordination of the DERs to balance the supply and demand of electricity on the grid.
The VPP provides real-time monitoring and control, as well as demand response capabilities, resulting in improved grid stability and customer satisfaction.
As another example, AutoGrid VPP technology is used to manage DERs, including wind turbines and solar panels, at a large industrial park in Germany. The VPP offers energy cost savings and grid reliability improvements, as well as reduced greenhouse gas emissions by more than 2 000 tonnes.
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