Abstract:Virtual power plant is an important construction direction for the country to carry out the construction of new power system and achieve the goal of "double carbon". From the perspective of the regulated electricity of virtual power plants in mainland China, the regulated electricity of virtual power plants in mainland China accounted for 0.5% of the total electricity consumption of the whole society in 2022. In the future, under the development of the new power system, the virtual power plant, as a regulating power source, is expected to achieve profitability through ancillary services and power trading.
1. Definitions and Classification
Virtual power plant is a power supply coordination management system that realizes the aggregation and coordinated optimization of DG (distributed power generation), energy storage system, controllable load, electric vehicles and other DER (distributed energy resources) through advanced information and communication technology and software systems, so as to participate in the power market and grid operation as a special power plant. Virtual power plants can be divided into two types: "load-based" virtual power plants and "source-grid-load-storage integration" virtual power plants.
Second, industry policies
In recent years, the policies of the virtual power plant industry have been intensively released, and the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration have clearly supported the development of virtual power plants and participated in the demand-side response in the form of virtual power plants in the policies of new energy storage, power market system, electricity spot market, demand-side management, and new power system. In November 2023, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and the National Energy Administration (NEA) issued the Notice on Further Accelerating the Construction of the Electricity Spot Market, proposing to form time-of-use price signals through marketization, promote new entities such as energy storage, virtual power plants, and load aggregators to play an active role in peak shaving, valley filling, and optimization of power quality, and explore new ways such as "new energy + energy storage". In January 2024, the National Development and Reform Commission, the National Energy Administration and other four departments issued the "Implementation Opinions on Strengthening the Integration and Interaction between New Energy Vehicles and Power Grids", proposing that the dispatched agencies of the National Energy Administration should establish and improve the market mechanism for users and third-party auxiliary services, including charging piles, charging and swapping stations, virtual power plants, and load aggregators. As an important part of promoting the consumption of new energy and an important form of power business model innovation, the support of follow-up policies is expected to continue to increase.
Third, the development process
The concept of virtual power plant was first proposed in foreign countries, after more than 20 years of history, its technology is mainly divided into three generations: the first generation of invitation, the second generation of transaction, and the third generation of autonomy. At present, most of the virtual power plants in mainland China are in the transition stage from the first generation of invitation to the second generation of transaction, and the virtual power plant projects carried out by various provinces are mainly pilots, guiding users to achieve peak shaving and valley filling and test demand response capabilities through demand response.
Fourth, industry barriers
1. Brand barriers
At present, most of the virtual power plant industry obtains contracts through bidding, and the comprehensive brand formed by the technical level, operation performance, product quality, market reputation, and after-sales service of virtual power plant enterprises is the most important core competitiveness of virtual power plant enterprises, and it is also the key factor affecting whether virtual power plant enterprises win the bid. Therefore, there are certain brand barriers for enterprises that are new to the virtual power plant industry.
2. Technical barriers
The virtual power plant industry is a technology-intensive industry, most of the products of the virtual power plant industry are customized products, and develop in the direction of miniaturization, informatization, intelligence and integration, which requires a large number of professional R&D technical personnel and technical leaders in power system design, high-voltage electrical design, mechanical structure design, microcomputer technology, communication technology and other specialties to continuously develop and innovate the products, and need advanced and perfect technology to ensure the refinement of products. High-level technical personnel are necessary conditions to ensure the advancement and sustainability of the R&D and manufacturing level of virtual power plant enterprises. Therefore, there are high technical barriers for enterprises that are new to the virtual power plant industry.
3. Talent barriers
The virtual power plant industry is typically intellectually intensive. As virtual power plant enterprises need to provide information services according to the specific needs of customers, enterprises in the virtual power plant industry not only need expert R&D teams that master the core technology of software research and development, but also need talents who master the knowledge background of the industry in which the customers are located, especially compound talents with the advantages of the above two aspects. The relatively limited number of high-quality technical talents, management talents and market talents in the virtual power plant industry constitutes a talent barrier to enter the virtual power plant industry.
Fifth, the industrial chain
1. Analysis of the industry chain
The upstream of the virtual power plant industry chain is mainly basic resources, including controllable load, distributed energy and energy storage, of which controllable load includes industrial load, commercial and building load and residential load, distributed energy includes solar photovoltaic cell power generation, wind turbine power generation and hydropower generation, and energy storage includes mechanical energy storage, electromagnetic energy storage, chemical energy storage and phase change energy storage. The midstream of the industrial chain is the operation of virtual power plants, and the downstream of the industrial chain is mainly the power demand market of virtual power plants, including power grid companies, electricity sales companies, industrial enterprises and commercial users.
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