UNLOCKING THE GRID ’ S POTENTIAL
“ VPPs are at the forefront of the flexibility landscape ”
— Humayun Tai , Senior Partner , McKinsey
utilised by operators can include weather information , equipment status monitoring , the angle of PV modules and more . Combined with battery storage units , energy bottlenecks – wherein a surplus of energy creates unused waste power – can be diffused , with the excess being used during peak hours to maintain a consistent service later .
As cloud and other technologies associated with VPPs ( data analytics , IoT , 5G networks , etc ) continue to improve , it is likely that the market demand will follow swiftly behind . Valued at USD $ 1.3bn in 2019 , that figure is estimated to grow 354 % to $ 5.9bn by 2027 according to Allied Market Research . Therefore , it is safe to assume that the most exciting iterations of the VPP are still to come .
UNLOCKING THE GRID ’ S POTENTIAL
In its insight article ‘ Decarbonising the grid : Stabilizing the future of renewables ’, McKinsey emphasises VPPs , amongst other aspects of digital energy , as a valuable resource for unlocking the latent potential of inefficient grids : “ VPPs are at the forefront of the flexibility landscape .”
The company states that entities such as German operator Next Kraftwerke ( NK ) have been able “ to balance the intermittency of large-scale renewables with the flexibility of distributed energy assets , such as onsite generation , and load resources , such as large commercial and industrial facilities .”
Indeed , according to NK ’ s founders and CEOs , Hendrik Sämisch and Jochen Schwill , VPPs could be an indispensable
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