Congestion management through coordination of distribution system operator and a virtual power plant

A congestion management method based on the coordination of the distribution system operator and a virtual power plant is developed. According to information sent from the distribution system operator to the virtual power plant, the flexibility of controllable distributed energy resources is utilized. This flexibility is provided as a service to the distribution system operator to relieve network congestions. The steps that are followed for the activation and provision of the congestion management service are presented by a flowchart. The actions of both actors and their information exchange are described. The coordinated congestion management method is verified through simulation of a distribution network with large integration of wind and solar power generation. The results presented show the effectiveness of this method.