Renewable energy is now firmly-established on the agendas of businesses, policymakers and individuals. Indeed, the 27 European Union member states sourced an average of 22 per cent of their energy from renewables in 2020, according to the World Economic Forum.
At the forefront of these technological developments are Virtual Power Plants (VPPs). For years, VPPs have been restricted to conversations at renewable energy conferences, but are now emerging as vital and credible technology for managing renewables. Recently, Forbes published the headline “Virtual Power Plants Have Gone From Geek To Must-Have Chic”. And, they’re not wrong.
The concept is based around the idea that hundreds - or thousands - of renewable energy sources can be virtually linked-up and managed. This includes industrial wind and solar farms, microgeneration sites, battery energy storage systems (BESS) and Combined Heat and Power (CHP) units. Hence, the VPP represents a virtual grouping of various, distributed generators and consumers. Within this virtual community, controls and algorithms are utilized to attain the best possible use of energy. To the outside world, the VPP can offer excess energy, on energy trading platforms for instance, or source electrical energy from auxiliary providers in case there is a lack of internal generation.
The idea of VPPs was largely promoted from being a “geek“ concept when residential homes and other distributed energy resources became more commonly equipped with BESS. When joined into a network, BESS provides an opportunity to store and share power in times of demand, further increasing the need to visualize this energy flow collectively.
VPPs are already being used in industry, with a prominent example being Germany’s Potsdam Chamber of Crafts, specifically its Competence Center for Energy Storage and Energy System Management. The education and innovation centre is dedicated to providing qualifications related to sustainability and decentralized energy systems.
Potsdam Chamber of Crafts wanted to train its students in renewable energy management systems (EMS). To do this, the campus was divided into two halves with one being disconnected to the public energy supply. The other half was disconnected and was instead powered by renewable energy ꟷ specifically, eleven photovoltaic plants totalling 144 Kilowatt peak (kWp), a wind turbine, several charging stations and various home storage systems on the campus.
To make this work, the so-called ‘renewable island’ need a large 640 kWh battery storage system plus an intelligent energy management system. For the latter, Potsdam Chamber of Crafts turned to COPA-DATA for assistance in connecting these assets.