Advanced Monitoring and Control System for Virtual Power Plants for Enabling Customer Engagement and Market Participation

Behnaz Behi, Ali Arefi, Philip Jennings, Arian Gorjy and Almantas Pivrikas
Additional contact information
Behnaz Behi: Discipline of Electrical Engineering, Energy and Physics, Murdoch University, Perth, WA 6150, Australia
Ali Arefi: Discipline of Electrical Engineering, Energy and Physics, Murdoch University, Perth, WA 6150, Australia
Philip Jennings: Discipline of Electrical Engineering, Energy and Physics, Murdoch University, Perth, WA 6150, Australia
Arian Gorjy: Yaran Property Group, Perth, WA 6151, Australia
Almantas Pivrikas: Discipline of Electrical Engineering, Energy and Physics, Murdoch University, Perth, WA 6150, Australia

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 4, 1-19

Abstract: To integrate large-scale renewable energy into energy systems, an effective participation from private investors and active customer engagement are essential. Virtual power plants (VPPs) are a very promising approach. To realize this engagement, an efficient monitoring and control system needs to be implemented for the VPP to be flexible, scalable, secure, and cost-effective. In this paper, a realistic VPP in Western Australia is studied, comprising 67 dwellings, including a 810 kW rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) system, a 700 kWh vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB), a heat pump hot water system (HWS), an electric vehicle (EV) charging station, and demand management mechanisms. The practical and detailed concept design of the monitoring and control system for EEBUS-enabled appliances, and also for the PV and VRFB system, with smart inverters, is proposed. In addition, a practical fog-based storage and computing system is developed to enable the VPP owner to manage the PV, VRFB, and EV charging station for maximizing the benefit to the customers and the VPP owner. Further, the proposed cloud-based applications enable customers to participate in gamified demand response programs for increasing the level of their engagement while satisfying their comfort level. All proposed systems and architecture in this paper have the capability of being implemented fully and relevant references for practical devices are given where necessary.

Keywords: photovoltaic generation; monitoring system; virtual power plant; control system; flow battery; EEBUS; distribution network; heat pump; demand side management; cloud-based computing; fog-based computing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/4/1113/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/4/1113/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:14:y:2021:i:4:p:1113-:d:502318

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().