Robust Scheduling of Virtual Power Plant Under Exogenous and Endogenous Uncertainties

Virtual power plant (VPP) provides a flexible solution to distributed energy resources integration by aggregating renewable generation units, conventional power plants, energy storages, and flexible demands. This paper proposes a novel stochastic adaptive robust optimization (SARO) model for determining the optimal self-scheduling plan for VPP's participation in the day-ahead energy-reserve market. We consider exogenous uncertainties (or called decision-independent uncertainties, DIUs) associated with market clearing prices and available wind generation, as well as endogenous uncertainties (or called decision-dependent uncertainties, DDUs) pertaining to real-time reserve deployment requests. A tractable solution methodology based on modified Benders dual decomposition is developed to effectively solve the proposed SARO model with both DIUs and DDUs. Case studies are conducted to verify the efficiency and applicability of the proposed approach. Comparative results show that the proposed method can mitigate the conservatism of robust strategy by capturing a satisfactory trade-off between profitability and real-time operation feasibility.

Automated summary

This paper proposes a novel stochastic adaptive robust optimization model for determining the optimal self-scheduling plan for virtual power plants in the day-ahead energy-reserve market. By aggregating renewable generation units, conventional power plants, energy storages, and flexible demands, virtual power plants provide a flexible solution to distributed energy resources integration.