Experts from Taiwan and abroad discuss virtual power plants at ITRI symposium

Experts from Taiwan and abroad discuss virtual power plants at ITRI symposium

2024-05-14

A stable electricity supply is crucial to any country’s economic development and electrical demand only continues to grow amid improvements in technological advancements. Combined with goals to lower carbon emissions, utilizing available resources and developing resilient power grids is key. One of the ways the challenges are being tackled in other countries is by the introduction of virtual power plants, which integrate resources and manage distribution when needed. The Industrial Technology Research Institute held a symposium on the matter with experts, academics and industry heavyweights, who shared their experiences and discussed the merits of the technology.

ITRI President Edwin Liu and representatives from Japanese industries and academia inaugurate a virtual power plant at a symposium for increasing the resilience of Taiwan’s electrical grid.

Kawahara Shigehiru
Toshiba
Over the past few years we’ve garnered technologies in the areas of control systems and forecasting. We think that in the future, Taiwan will face a similar situation to us. We’re very willing to provide our technologies so that we can all stride together toward carbon neutrality.

Virtual power plants integrate different sources such as renewable energy, demand responses and energy storage to form a controllable source of electricity. The plants find the optimal mix and usage to make for an efficient electrical supply system that also improves the resilience of the grid. This technology has been in use for years in Germany and Japan. In Germany, the government has gradually built up a commercial operations model. In Japan, residential energy storage systems have become an important foundation for the development of virtual power plants.

Edwin Liu
ITRI president
The concept of virtual power plants started forming in Germany more than a decade ago. Then after the Tohoku earthquake of 2011, Japan started promoting the idea proactively. I think Taiwan should learn from all these countries around the world that have been developing virtual power plants over the past 10 years.

ITRI has developed a virtual power plant that aggregates a variety of energy resources. The plant integrates air conditioning at chain stores and school campuses, solar power generators and others into a secondary service market for Taipower. The goal is to make the power grid more stable.

Cheng Chih-wen
Ancillary Power
If every household has renewable energy, its management would require a lot of support from virtual power plants and smart grids. It’s only with this kind of help that worries about grid instability can go away.

A stable supply is key for national economic development. After the April 3 earthquake in Hualien, energy storage systems were used to mitigate challenges, demonstrating the resilience of the power grid. Further advancements in virtual power plant technology in the future could lead to higher integration among resources and lower carbon emissions, making the system more environmentally friendly and sustainable.

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