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Virtual Power Plant Management (VPPM)

In recent years the Italian power system has undergone a profound evolution due to the increase in Distributed Generation (DG) from various types of power plants (wind, FV, hydro, biomass, geothermal, CHP) for self-consumption or rather connected to the grid. Figures provided by the Italian Authority show how the DG amounts to 22% of the whole national power production and this energy is produced in rather small power plants. This increase in DG has resulted in a growing difficulty to forecast the generation profile and to modulate the power available on the grid.

The approach of aggregating Generation, Storage and Demand enabled to the Dispatching Service market (MSD) by means of pilot projects of Virtual Aggregates (the so called UVAx) – as indicated in the ARERA resolution No 300/2017/R/ell – is among the solutions adopted to address the constraints in terms of reliability and safety of the power grid.

Such an approach – internationally known as Virtual Power Plant Management (VPPM) – allows operators to optimize their revenues through best performing practices such as an efficient use of Renewable Energy, the introduction of new technologies as power Storage and Smart Grids, and to meet the needs of greater sustainability and efficiency of the “energy system” in general.

On the basis of the experience of Kisters in Germany and an in-depth knowledge of the Italian energy market, ifs Italia provides Trader, ESCO and Generation companies with a cutting edge solution that is able to manage and best optimize the complexity of VPPM (and relative power plants thereof), from SCADA to intra-day Market monitoring, offering an economic, flexible, reliable and easily adapted cloud solution in addition to the classical “on premises” installation.