I²R Techs & Solutions
Future-Ready Wireless Communications for Connected Renewable Energy (Wireless Virtual Power Plant)
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Overview of virtual power plant (VPP) with aggregation of distributed energy resources (DERs)
As Singapore journeys towards achieving its sustainable energy goals, there is a pressing need to increase the efficiency of power distribution. This can be done through the intelligent integration of virtual power plants (VPPs) with existing physical power plants. Such VPPs comprise of distributed energy resources (DERs) – small-scale power generation resources that are interconnected on the electric grid which can be used individually or aggregated, allowing energy supply to be optimised based on demand.
Traditional communication networks, which manage the energy supply between the physical power plants and DERs, use costly fibre pilot cables which are cumbersome to install and maintain. In contrast, wireless communication networks are convenient and cost-effective without any need for physical cables. However, they are usually unable to meet the VPP’s quality of service (QoS) requirement due to security and stability issues.
- Offers 2-way highly reliable and resilient wireless communication for VPPs: Able to remotely control the DERs and collect information for remote monitoring, predictive analytics and optimisation. The developed wireless communication comes with enhancement features to push the limit of current wireless network and support the VPP-required extreme QoS. Such techniques can be expanded to support implementation in 4G as well as 5G and beyond networks.
- Provides a useful reference (especially for relevant regulatory and standardisation bodies) for development of future wireless communication specifications, including network setup, connectivity and interaction between VPP and other sub-systems in Energy Grid 2.0: As current codes of practice for energy grid are mainly based on wired networks, the solution provides a full picture of existing network performance (i.e. public 4G and 5G), identifies its limitations and recommends techniques to improve the performance accordingly.
- Potentially support future applications with similar or more stringent QoS, paving the way for the development of more novel smart grid applications beyond VPPs.
If you're interested in collaborating with us on your use cases or exploring in-depth research in these areas, contact us for further discussions.
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