In the pursuit of advancing the COPOWER project's community-based Virtual Power Plant (cVPP) model, a comprehensive assessment of technology providers has been conducted by partners, laying the groundwork for the development phase. The preliminary evaluation has identified several key players in the field, each offering unique capabilities and expertise tailored to the project's requirements.
VIBECO, Virtual Buildings Ecosystem Oy, is a subsidiary of Siemens, with the focus on VPPs. They offer virtual power plant services, through which properties and industry can participate in the electricity market to benefit them, including the technology, expertise, services, and possibly also funding. Furthermore, several VPP references have been established in Finland already, most of them large scale.
A virtual powerplant is already in use at Primeo Energie, which includes hydro powerplants, pumped hydro storage plants, battery energy storages and hot water storage tanks in Switzerland and France. For the implementation of a VPP into the real world, Primeo Energie serves as a leading example, since the powerplants owned and operated are delivering real data, and the VPP has proven to be a profitable investment for them.
Next Kraftwerke is one of the forerunners of VPP’s in Europe. The company offers owners of powerplants, e.g. biogas plants, wind parks, of PV panels, a direct market sales platform. The focus is put on a software that is installed at the local powerplant, and offering power trading, balancing energy and power scheduling as a service. Next Kraftwerke is then scheduling the production for the most profitable time of the day, and they take care of the direct sales of electricity at the energy stock exchange, on behalf of the owners. Nevertheless, they currently do not operate in any of the COPOWER partner’s countries.
Izon has been implementing a VPP software model into reality for the Derry City & Strabane District Council. This was part of the predecessor of COPOWER, the SMARCTIC project, also funded by Northern Periphery and Arctic Programme. The outcome has been demonstrated by Izon to us. So far, the VPP model is only measuring data, since no power production or battery storage is available withing the buildings implemented. The outcome of the work has been successful, with key elements of our development work, such as weather forecasting, electricity price prediction and AI algorithms in use.
Capalo Ai is developing a software for power trading models. Battery energy storages are controlled by their software to sell stored electricity on the sport price market, or intraday trading.
Sonnen has developed their own battery energy storage modules that are designed to store electricity from PV panels, in combination with a power management system and a VPP software. They specialize in delivering their own battery storage units and control them via a central VPP software. The customers will get a compensation for the energy that is sold to the grid during times of high demand. During other times, owners of the battery units can use the stored energy themselves. In total, Sonnen operates 25,000 battery storage units in Germany and this amounts to one large VPP, that is managed remotely. As another previous example, Sonnen does not currently operate in any of the COPOWER participants countries.
Enviro Tech is a software development company that is specializing in data analytics. They are also currently developing a battery energy storage unit, and thus interested in piloting this device in connection to a virtual powerplant.