Virtual power plants. Is it possible to control the sources of "green" energy?

Humanity is increasing its electricity consumption and production, with particular attention to renewable or “green” sources. According to research company REN21, in 2017 the share of renewable energy sources in world production was 10.4%. Moreover, in advanced countries this share is higher: in 2017, the EU received 17.5% of energy from renewable sources, and the goal for the year 2020 - 20%. As the share of renewable energy in the generation increases, the importance of the associated problems increases. What are these problems, how do virtual power plants solve them, and what is it all about? We tell.

What is wrong with green energy?

In general, everything is so. On the Enerdata website you can see data on energy production for the period of 1990-2017 with a breakdown by country - according to the charts it can be seen that most countries are increasing the share of renewable energy sources. Our future is inevitably linked to alternative energy, and for the most advanced countries and individual industries, this is already present at all. Thus, the Netherlands Railways since 2017 drive exclusively on electricity from wind turbines. And in such a way, about 320 million passengers are transported per year, which is 18.5 times more than the entire population of the country (for comparison, the Russian Railways transport about 1 billion passengers per year, that is, 7-8 people in Russia). Another example is Norway: more than 97.8% of the energy produced in this country is generated by alternative sources.


Some European countries not only reached the targets for increasing the share of electricity from renewable sources, but also exceeded them. The leaders are Sweden, Finland and Latvia. Source: Eurostat
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That is, everything seems to be great, but there are still some difficulties: for all its advantages, alternative energy cannot provide a constant level of electricity production. Sometimes there is less electricity than electricity consumers need. Sometimes - on the contrary, and this is also a problem, since the excess electricity needs to be put somewhere. Solar panels operate only during the day, their efficiency depends on the season and weather conditions. Wind farms depend not only on the presence of wind, but also, for example, stop working during the seasonal flight of birds. Tidal power plants and work at all for several hours a day, during the ebb and flow. This is the main problem and the main difference from nuclear and thermal power plants. And the more production falls on “green” sources, the higher the importance of these problems. Also, renewable energy sources are often far from each other, which requires a more complex infrastructure than in the case of centralized production of a comparable amount of energy.

What to do with it?

To solve these problems came up with virtual power plants (WEC, they are VPP - Virtual Power Plants). So called software and hardware systems that allow you to manage a huge number of disparate power generation plants, as if this is one power plant. Software created using machine learning technology, distributes electricity between consumers, and also reserves surplus, using them to compensate for daily declines. And here the elements of the self-taught AI introduced into the code are especially important. They are learning to predict production declines and consumption peaks, optimizing the movement of energy within the system.

If it is easier to explain, a virtual power plant is an exchange of sellers and buyers of electricity that balances the demand and supply of energy. As a result, all consumers of electricity use “green” energy as if it was generated by a classical NPP or CHP. That is, electricity in the network is always and the voltage in the network is constant. And energy producers are guaranteed to sell their products.

A virtual power plant is always an individual project, since the structure of renewable energy sources and their consumers is always unique and depends on the geographical and demographic features of the region. However, in any WEC there are the following elements:

1. energy sources (renewable and traditional),
2. electricity consumers (business and public),
3. energy storage system (batteries),
4. IoT sensors to collect information and control consumer performance
5. Software that controls the operation of the grid.

Virtual power plants can easily scale to the global planetary infrastructure, not to mention the needs of any single state. Source: Toshiba

In power systems, where electricity is generated by solar and wind power plants and energy is distributed without the use of virtual power plants, energy must be reserved, and at least 13-15% of the generated and reserved energy is not normally used. As a result, the production of electricity is less profitable. In systems with virtual power plants, the amount of unnecessary reserves is much less. Ideally, it should generally tend to zero.

Also, WEC software algorithms allow to reduce energy consumption in the system by minimizing losses during energy transmission and fine work with sensors of the Internet of things. So, they can be used to regulate heating in the winter and air conditioning in the summer, saving energy when it reaches the set temperatures. And you can bind the ventilation of the building to the number of people inside, forcing it to operate to a maximum only during office hours.

The prospect of the market of virtual power plants is visible on financial investments. According to the report of Markets and Markets, in 2016, the world market for wind power stations was 193.4 million US dollars, and the forecast until 2021 is 709 million US dollars. In absolute terms, this is still a bit, but the dynamics are quite unambiguous, and further, when the technologies roll in and the Internet of things gets further development, we are in for a breakthrough.

So far, all the major wind farm projects are either being implemented or are already working in test mode. One of the world's first practical examples of wind power plants was the Atlantic PowerShift project, implemented in the Canadian province of New Brunswick and its environs in 2010-2015. He combined the power systems of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, consisting of both "fossil" and renewable energy sources. As a result of the launch of the virtual power plant, the peak loads in the network were almost completely smoothed out.



Natural conditions in southeastern Canada are favorable for the development of alternative energy sources: wind farms and hydroelectric power plants. However, prior to the introduction of wind power plants, their development was stalled by the impossibility of ensuring energy production at a constant and predictable level. As part of the implementation of the project PowerShift Atlantic, this was achieved. Source: PowerShift Atlatic

With the start of the WPP operation, switching between energy sources began to occur unnoticed by users, the dependence on weather conditions was eliminated, which allowed further development of wind and hydroelectric power plants. The total capacity of the wind power-controlled power grid is more than 6,200 MW.

One of the most famous and large-scale WES projects being implemented right now is the Tesla facility, a giant virtual power plant in South Australia, which unites 50,000 houses with installed solar panels and Powerwall 2 batteries. , not a tool to solve a local problem. The main goal of the Australian wind farm is to supplement and strengthen the national grid and reduce the cost of electricity for subscribers. When the project is completed, Tesla's solar farm will produce 250 MW of energy, and its batteries can accumulate up to 650 MW / h. This is the largest green project in Australia at the moment.

What unites these projects? The availability of renewable resources (on the Atlantic coast of Canada is one of the best wind conditions in the world for building wind power plants; in southern Australia there are 180 sunny days per year) and the presence of residential neighborhoods of cities with a poor length of development.

Similar projects were implemented in Finland (as a result of the work of wind power plants, greenhouse gas emissions there decreased by 0.5%), Slovenia , Germany , and Hawaii .

What prevents virtual power plants?

The development of virtual power plants is seriously inhibited at the legislative level. The fact is that the sale of electricity to consumers in many countries is allowed only for the state, which buys it from private producers. Therefore, to organize a private distributed network without state participation is impossible.

If you look at the Russian experience, you need to note slow, but inevitable progress. In 2017, the Government of the Russian Federation approved the “Action Plan to stimulate the development of generating facilities based on renewable energy sources with an installed capacity of up to 15 kW”, which implies the full operation of small renewable energy sources such as private windmills and solar panels. The special preferential “green tariff”, according to which the owners of home power plants could sell surplus electricity to the state, has not yet been introduced, but the bill is being considered in the State Duma, and there are good chances that it will be adopted this year.

Also a weak point of virtual power plants is the high cost of implementation, which is difficult to predict. Alternative power plants are needed that produce expensive electricity, which itself needs to be subsidized. Installation and synchronization of IoT sensors is necessary, which, in turn, place high demands on the quality of the Internet connection (however, in advanced countries this problem will be solved with the deployment of 5G networks). Requires complex software and its continued support. And this again leads us to the need to support the state or another large investor at the stage of launching the WEC.

What awaits us all?

Virtual power plants will be actively developed, gradually pushing outdated legislation in all countries of the world. By about 2021, we will witness the emergence of a completely new electricity market, closely connected with virtual power plants, the smart distribution of energy reserves and the optimization of the energy consumption of all market participants. It is this year that the construction of large virtual power plants will be completed in the USA, the EU and Japan, and their advantages will become apparent.

Well-established WEC systems stimulate the world to increase the share of alternative energy sources, which will contribute to improving the ecological situation on the planet and saving natural resources. Plus, the energy infrastructure will completely change: instead of giant power stations and a web of wires diverging to consumers, we will get a decentralized network. And this means that the future energy systems of humanity will become less vulnerable in the event of cataclysms - in Japan, where the share of renewable energy sources is small and is about 17%, WPPs are actively interested in this very context. Decentralization of energy flows will help the Japanese to avoid massive outages during earthquakes and typhoons.

Also, a decentralized network of electricity producers and consumers will be able to create more charge stations for electric vehicles and will stimulate the industry. And you shouldn’t discount the fact that the less humanity needs superpower producers of electricity, the less likelihood of large man-made disasters. So gradually we make our planet better, more comfortable and safer. And everyone will win.