Optimal VPP Energy Production Planning with Renewable Energy Sources and Small Dispatchable Generators

The energy industry is dynamic. Advances in technology, environmental concerns, further restriction in regulations, and changes in business influence the energy industry landscape. The electricity market is shifting from an almost total dependence on large, centralized power plants to a more diverse and inclusive of small power providers system. A Virtual Power Plant (VPP) is a decentralized energy management system tasked to aggregate distributed power generations, energy storage systems, and dispatchable loads for a purpose of energy trading in the energy market. This paper formulates an energy production planning problem for a VPP under various production constraints. The VPP includes very small dispatchable generators and renewable energy sources. The loads serviced by the VPP are from a small community consisting of 30 residences and three commercial and industrial areas. The energy is priced differently depending upon the types of loads (large or small). Numerical results show that the VPP system is profitable to operate. The model is extendable to include more consumers and energy producers in the future.