Application of the Environmental Friendliness Rating in the Design of a Virtual Power Plant with Renewable Energy Sources

Distributed generation based on renewable energy sources (RES) is developing rapidly. Increasing the efficiency of RES use is associated with their integration into virtual power plants (VPP). When designing and planning large-scale and long-term development of VPP, one of the important criteria is to assess the impact of energy sources on the environment. A methodology has been developed for determining the VPP environmental friendliness rating, taking into account the life cycle of the power plants included in it. Studies have been conducted on the possibility of applying the environmental rating in the design of VPP. According to the developed methodology, comparative calculations of the environmental rating for two types of VPP with the same total installed capacity have been carried out: 1) consisting only of wind power plants; 2) consisting only of solar power plants. The conducted research has shown the VPP design option based on wind turbines is more environmentally friendly. The developed methodology can be improved by adding an algorithm for selecting the optimal composition of power plants, taking into account the environmental impact on the environment.