Review of Virtual Power Plants with Multi-source Distributed Resources: Concepts, Applications and Outlook

In order to standardize the power curve of the power system, optimize efficiency, reduce costs, and achieve reasonable allocation of power resources, the concept of virtual power plant (VPP) was raised to realize the management and scheduling of distributed power resources. With its light-asset and structured characteristics, VPP can play a key role in scenarios such as the power market. In recent years, there has been a dense research trend on VPP and related topics in academia. This paper summarizes and investigates the research field of VPP with multi-source distributed resources (MDER), gives the definition of VPP, summarizes the common architecture, operation mode and corresponding functions of VPP, and gives the current application status of VPP combined with several specific project cases. In addition, we also collate the evaluation indicators for VPP and propose new evaluation perspectives. Finally, we offer an outlook of future research and application prospects of this field.