A virtual power plant (VPP) is a network of decentralized, small- to medium-scale power generating units, flexible power consumers, and storage systems that are aggregated and operated as a single entity through sophisticated software and control systems. Unlike a traditional power plant that exists in a single physical location, a VPP is distributed across multiple locations but functions as a unified resource.

VPPs are important to power grid operations because they provide grid flexibility. VPPs help balance supply and demand on the grid by coordinating many smaller assets to respond quickly to fluctuations. This becomes increasingly important as more intermittent renewable energy sources—wind and solar—are added to the grid.

“A virtual power plant is essentially an aggregation of lots of different resources or assets from the grid,” Sally Jacquemin, vice president and general manager of Power & Utilities with AspenTech, said as a guest on The POWER Podcast. “As a whole, they have a bigger impact on the grid than any individual asset would have on its own. And so, you aggregate all these distributed energy resources and assets together to create a virtual power plant that can be dispatched to help balance the overall system supply to demand.”

VPPs provide a way to effectively integrate and manage distributed energy resources such as rooftop solar, small wind turbines, battery storage systems, electric vehicles, and demand response programs. VPPs can reduce strain on the grid during peak demand periods by strategically reducing consumption or increasing generation from distributed sources, helping to avoid blackouts and reducing the need for expensive peaker plants.

Other benefits provided by VPPs include enhancing grid resilience, enabling smaller energy resources to participate in electricity markets that would otherwise be inaccessible to them individually, and reducing infrastructure costs by making better use of existing assets and reducing peak demand. VPPs enable consumers to become “prosumers,” that is, both producers and consumers of energy, giving them more control over their energy use and potentially reducing their costs.

“Virtual power plants are becoming important, not only for utilities, but also in the private sector,” Jacquemin explained. “Because of the commercial value of electricity rising and the market system rates, it’s now profitable for these virtual power plants in many markets due to the value of power that they can supply during these periods of low supply.”

AspenTech is a leading industrial software partner, with more than 60 locations worldwide. The company’s solutions address complex environments where it is critical to optimize the asset design, operation, and maintenance lifecycle. AspenTech says its Digital Grid Management solutions “enable the resilient, sustainable, and intelligent utility of the future.”

“At AspenTech Digital Grid Management, our software is in control rooms of utilities around the world,” said Jacquemin. “All utilities know they need to be investing in their digital solutions and modernizing their control room technology in order to meet the demands of the energy transition. So, utilities need to be focusing more time and more money to ensure that their software and their systems are capable of enabling that utility of the future.”

To hear the full interview with Jacquemin, which includes more about the challenges presented by the energy transition, technological solutions that address those challenges, the regional differences in technology adoption, cybersecurity best practices, emerging business models, workforce issues, and what the future holds for the power industry, listen to The POWER Podcast. Click on the SoundCloud player below to listen in your browser now or use the following links to reach the show page on your favorite podcast platform:

For more power podcasts, visit The POWER Podcast archives.

—Aaron Larson is POWER’s executive editor (@AaronL_Power, @POWERmagazine).