Trading models for aggregating distributed energy resources into virtual power plant

A number of Distributed Energy Resources (DER) of various technologies with various operating pattern and availability can be integrated in a Virtual Power Plant (VPP). Some of the Distributed Generators (DGs), those are dispatchable and have high capacity, can individually participate in the power market but they may choose VPP if they hope to reach a higher benefit in the power market through VPP. Some of the others, those are very small or have stochastic nature, can not gain access to the power market without aggregation. Depend on the capacity and characteristics of distributed energy resources, their aims for joining to VPP and their dependency to VPP may be different. VPP may be their ownership, their operator or only an interface entity that can facilitate more economical opportunities for them in the power market. This paper characterizes a general framework for VPP which can be included the various DG technologies in both medium and low voltage distribution networks. Based on the degree of dependency to VPP, the VPP components are categorized into three classes, i.e. market component parts, contractual component parts and internal component parts, and also their trading relation with VPP are discussed.