The British Academy for Training and Development offers this training program in “Virtual Power Plants (VPP) Design”, developed for professionals who need a clear understanding of how distributed energy resources can operate as a coordinated power system.

The program examines VPP design principles, including renewable generation, battery storage, controllable loads, electric vehicles, communication networks, forecasting, optimization, and energy management systems. Participants will explore the technical and operational requirements for aggregating diverse assets while maintaining reliability, responsiveness, and grid compatibility. The training also addresses VPP control structures, data exchange, cybersecurity, grid services, electricity markets, and performance requirements. Emphasis is placed on sound engineering principles and the key decisions involved in developing VPP solutions for modern power networks.

Who Should Attend?

• Electrical and power systems engineers working with distributed energy resources.
• Energy managers, utility professionals, and grid operators integrating flexible energy assets.
• Renewable energy, battery storage, and energy management specialists seeking VPP knowledge.
• Project managers, consultants, and technical decision-makers in digital energy projects.

Knowledge and Benefits:

After completing the program, participants will be able to master the following:

• Explain VPP architecture, operating principles, and main components.
• Assess distributed energy resources for flexibility, control, and VPP integration.
• Develop VPP control, communication, forecasting, optimization, and energy management structures.
• Examine VPP connections with grids, ancillary services, demand response, and energy markets.
• Identify technical, operational, cybersecurity, reliability, and performance requirements for VPPs.

• Virtual Power Plant Fundamentals
  • Define VPP concepts and their role in modern power systems.
  • Examine VPP development and distributed generation coordination.
  • Distinguish centralized, decentralized, and hierarchical VPP models.
• VPP Components and Architecture
  • Examine renewable generation, battery storage, flexible loads, and electric vehicles.
  • Identify aggregators, energy management systems, control platforms, and grid interfaces.
  • Review data flows between distributed assets and control layers.

• Distributed Energy Resources
  • Analyze renewable, storage, flexible load, and prosumer characteristics.
  • Examine availability, response times, ramp rates, and capacity limits.
  • Assess asset flexibility for balancing and grid-support services.
• VPP Control and Energy Management
  • Examine supervisory, local, and hierarchical control structures.
  • Review dispatch strategies for coordinating distributed assets.
  • Explore energy management for generation, consumption, and storage.

• VPP Forecasting and Optimization
  • Examine load, renewable generation, price, and asset availability forecasting.
  • Review optimization methods for dispatch and resource scheduling.
  • Analyze forecast uncertainty and operational constraints.
• Communication and Digital Infrastructure
  • Examine communication architectures for monitoring and control.
  • Review interoperability, protocols, data models, and information exchange.
  • Consider latency, reliability, scalability, and data quality requirements.

• VPP Grid Integration and Energy Markets
  • Examine VPP connections to distribution and transmission networks.
  • Review voltage, frequency, power quality, protection, and grid requirements.
  • Examine participation in wholesale, balancing, ancillary-service, and demand-response markets.
• Advanced VPP Design, Cybersecurity, and Performance
  • Review reliability, scalability, redundancy, resilience, and performance requirements.
  • Examine cybersecurity risks across assets, communications, control platforms, and data.
  • Identify methods for secure, reliable, and efficient VPP operation.