Yang Jingjing, Shu Yucheng & Ye Zhaokang

FOR more than a century, the prevalent image of power plants has been towering smokestacks, endless coal trains, and loud spinning turbines. However, the plants that will power our future will look radically different — in fact, many may not have a centralized, physical form at all. Welcome to the era of virtual power plants (VPPs).

Yesterday, the Shenzhen Municipal Development and Reform Commission and the Shenzhen Power Supply Bureau of China Southern Power Grid Co. unveiled the VPP Regulation and Management Cloud Platform 3.0 during the 2024 International Digital Energy Exhibition.

This platform aims to promote the development of the virtual power plant industry in a greener, more efficient, and more digital manner.

“The Shenzhen virtual power plant regulation and management cloud platform was launched at the end of 2021 and serves as the ‘commander-in-chief’ of the city’s virtual power plants. Building on version 2.0, we have made iterative improvements, particularly in the ‘low-carbon dispatch’ mechanism, which is a significant area of research in the industry,” said Cheng Renli, general manager of the Shenzhen Virtual Power Plant Management Center.

Utilizing a combination of “power + computing power” technologies — including green power tracking and remote signaling — the 3.0 platform begins at the local power generation source and calculates and monitors the “carbon footprint” throughout the power transmission process. It integrates the carbon emissions data of the power system with the current supply and demand situation, allowing for scientifically informed peak load shifting designed to minimize carbon emissions.

As of August this year, Shenzhen’s virtual power plant regulation and management cloud platform had carried out 71 load adjustments, reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 2,273 tons. Launching the “low-carbon dispatch” function will achieve greater energy conservation and is expected to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 3,000 tons this year.

A virtual power plant is a system of distributed energy resources — like rooftop solar panels, electric vehicle chargers, and smart water heaters — that work together to balance energy supply and demand on a large scale. They are usually run by local utility companies who oversee this balancing act.

In August 2022, China’s first virtual power plant management center was established in Shenzhen in the Shenzhen Power Supply Bureau of China Southern Power Grid Co.