The very first testing of Virtual Power Plant (VPP) should be shortly organised with appropriate scale and amount of time in Viet Nam. Therefore, power system and market operators, as well as the Electricity Regulatory Authority of Vietnam (ERAV) have a basis for considering and issuing legal and technical regulations, and then put this model into operation, to support the integration of renewable energy resources into the country’s power grid.

The proposals were put forward at the workshop “Development of Virtual Power Plant technology in Viet Nam”, which was virtually organised by GIZ and the ERAV of the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT) on 23 September.

The event was chaired by Mr. Tran Tue Quang, Deputy General Director of ERAV and Mr. Markus Bissel, Director of the “Smart Grids for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency” (SGREEE) project. Nearly 200 participants joined the workshop.

The VPP is one of the smart grid technologies that has been emerging as an effective tool for aggregators to digitally bundle variable renewable energy (vRE) plants to a single portfolio and trade their output. Some developed countries have utilised this technology and successfully integrated renewable energy into their power grids. Until now, Viet Nam, however, has not had any experience in applying all functions of this technology to manage, monitor, forecast, and implement other functions of vRE in the power system and market.

At the event, a group of GIZ-coordinated international and national consultants, shared their research results, including main features of the VPP; current situation of the Operation Control Center (OCC) for renewables; differences between OCC and VPP; vRE control solutions and their application in Viet Nam; proposals for the application of the VPP model in the nation.

According to consultants, the testing phase is considered as an ideal starting point to evaluate the technical performance, assess different applications, produce key learnings and stimulate innovation and technology transfer.

Participants were representatives from affiliated entities under the MOIT, the Vietnam Electricity, the National Load Dispatch Center, the Regional Load Dispatch Center, Power Corporations, power generation companies, power companies, the Vietnam Electrical Engineering Association, power construction consulting firms, other associations, research institutes, universities, international organisations and private companies.

The event was part of the SGREEE project, which is jointly implemented by the ERAV/MOIT and GIZ. The project is financed by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

Under the SGREEE project, the first group of experts on smart grid has been established in Viet Nam: https://www.facebook.com/groups/smartgridvn/. Information about the project is available on the Smart Grid Viet Nam Knowledge Hub at https://smart-grid.vn/ or ESP’s website https://bit.ly/3mS1lIM.