Day-Ahead Optimal Dispatch Model for Virtual Power Plants Incorporating Dynamic Time-of-Use Pricing and Balancing Accounts

To enhance the collaborative economic performance between virtual power plants (VPPs) and diversified users under high-penetration renewable energy integration, this paper proposes a day-ahead optimal dispatch model based on time-of-use (TOU) pricing mechanisms and balancing accounts, integrated with a Shapley value-based benefit allocation method. First, based on user demand elasticity, a day-ahead optimization model was developed to maximize the balancing account revenue while accounting for user satisfaction, and three operational schemes ware designed to validate the effectiveness of the model. The results indicate that Scheme 3, where all users participate in TOU pricing based on their elasticity coefficients and optimal peakvalley price ratios, increases the total balancing account revenue by 49.5%. Importantly, this scheme ensures unchanged electricity costs for users while boosting revenues for both the VPP operator and users, which reducing peak-valley load differences.