A Review of the Evolution and Main Roles of Virtual Power Plants as Key Stakeholders in Power Systems

Virtual Power Plants (VPPs) allow the aggregated management of diverse power technologies in systems of different size, complexity and connectivity. The main objectives of a VPP are to ensure the correct integration of these technologies into power systems, to optimize the power production and load demand, and to meet the technical and commercial requirements, considering the stakeholders’ needs. This paper provides a literature review of the most influential factors as regards the management of VPPs. This literature review includes aspects like the evolutionary frequency of the concepts/definitions most used, the VPP operation, planning and interaction with the systems, programming methods, math techniques and software tools used to solve the issues proposed and the international VPP projects as reference for the systems development. Therefore, this work aims to provide the reader the information and concepts that can support for a better understanding of the role of VPPs in power systems, the approach to sustainability and the interaction with the power market as the good way to bring new economic opportunities to small producers, consumers and prosumers of renewable energy.