Synergistic Low-Carbon Economic Dispatch of a Virtual Power Plant with Microencapsulated Carbon Capture and Demand Response

Building power systems dominated by renewable energy is an inevitable trend under carbon neutrality goals. However, the large-scale integration of intermittent and volatile renewables poses significant challenges to the grid and coal-fired power systems concerning low-carbon operation and flexible peak-shaving and frequency regulation. Conventional carbon capture (CC) technologies and the flexibility of thermal power plants can no longer meet these demands. Microencapsulated carbon capture (MECC) offers a promising alternative with higher specific surface area, stability, and capture rates 3-5 times that of amine-based methods. This paper proposes a virtual power plant (VPP) model integrating MECC and demand response (DR) to evaluate its dispatch performance. Using a self-developed microcapsule material, the model leverages electrothermal complementarity and integrated DR to optimize flexible resources. Under a carbon trading mechanism, simulations in MATLAB/YALMIP with GUROBI show that MECC reduces energy consumption by 20.45% and improves generation efficiency. DR enhances renewable integration, increasing wind and photovoltaic utilization by 2.17% and 1.60%, respectively, while reducing curtailment costs by 3.45%. This study provides theoretical and operational references for MECC application in power systems.