Redispatch potential of virtual power plants for transmission grid congestion management

Abstract:
In recent years, the European and in particular the German transmission system have been faced with a significant increase of grid congestion issues. Contemporary congestion management heavily relies on redispatch of large-scaled conventional power plants. This needs to be reconsidered as the power system develops towards distributed generation and increased importance of flexibility. This paper presents concepts on how virtual power plants (VPP) of aggregators could be incorporated in redispatch procedures. To this end, the technical redispatch potential of VPPs is calculated by an optimization-based methodology. In the context of this paper, a VPP may consist of flexible generators, storage systems, electric mobility and flexible loads. The effectiveness of the methodology is demonstrated by applying it to case studies considering different grid structures, VPP combinations and installed power of flexible generation and load.