Optimal operation of a virtual power plant with risk management

In the evolving smart power systems (or smart grids), distributed generators (DG) and virtual power plants (VPP) have major roles in providing electric energy for microgrids. This paper studies the optimal operation of a VPP in a microgrid considering the uncertainties of the energy and fuel prices and managing the variance/risk of the VPP's profit with respect to these uncertainties. The proposed mathematical programming for the optimization of a VPP's operation is applied to a typical microgrid and the numerical results are presented and analyzed.