Individual customers' influence on the operation of virtual power plants

Abstract

With respect to the political 20-20-20 goals of the European Union, the structure of the electricity network is subject to major changes. The German legal framework has encouraged the installation and operation of renewable energy systems and cogeneration units. As a consequence, in the city of Mannheim, Germany, more and more distributed generators feed into the distribution grid. In September 2008, more than 300 small PV systems and cogeneration units have been connected to the distribution grid, with a steadily rising number and installed capacity. The distribution grid can still host that number and capacity of distributed generation without any major integration efforts. However, to reach the above mentioned political goals, the electricity grid planners will face the challenge to integrate a much higher number of distributed generators as well as higher fluctuating capacity while maintaining and even improving reliability and security of supply. In 2007, the German government has launched the technology program “E-Energy” [1]. Six research teams are currently developing new ICT infrastructures for six model regions in order to increase the efficiency of the energy system with ICT as enabling technology. This paper elaborates on the decentralized approach for a virtual power plant that researchers will apply to the city of Mannheim as one model city. Chapter 1 explains the role of individual customers who cooperate in a swarm like an organism. Chapter 2 provides the technical concept behind the new system architecture. Chapter 3 shows first experiences with the field test in Mannheim and Chapter 4 concludes the paper.