Blockchain-Integrated Virtual Power Plant Demonstration

Abstract

The penetration of distributed energy resources keeps increasing in most of electricity markets, becoming an essential part of smart grid systems. This, along with advancements in power converters and control systems, led to formation of various aggregation mechanisms, such as Virtual Power Plants (VPP) or demand response (DR) aggregators, enabling participation of small and medium scale distributed energy resources (DER) in electricity markets. Such mechanisms typically entail control of DER assets at specified time periods to provide grid services such as peak shaving. However, the transparency of operations when controlling the aggregated DERs is a risk from the asset owner's perspective and may lead to various types of disputes with the aggregator or operator. In order to tackle this issue, we have developed a blockchain-based mechanism that handles all transactions within a VPP on a distributed data ledger, enabling full transparency of the system. The blockchain system is integrated with an actual VPP setup with a total aggregated size of 1.8MWs composed of renewables, energy storage systems and controllable loads. The proposed mechanism contributes to grid digitalization and enables new applications in power systems, incentivizing larger penetration of DERs and their participation in ancillary services.