Orchestrating Distributed Energy Resources to Provide Power System Ancillary Services
From the Perspective of Virtual Power Plants
H. Xie (TU Delft - Intelligent Electrical Power Grids)
J.L. Cremer – Promotor (TU Delft - Intelligent Electrical Power Grids)
P. Palensky – Promotor (TU Delft - Electrical Sustainable Energy)
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Abstract
Rapid decarbonisation and large-scale deployment of inverter-based renewables are turning power systems into low-inertia, weakly meshed grids where stability can no longer be guaranteed by a few synchronous machines. At the same time, Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) such as storage, electric vehicles, rooftop PV, and flexible loads are proliferating in distribution networks, creating substantial but fragmented flexibility. Virtual Power Plants (VPPs) aggregate these DERs into controllable portfolios, yet ancillary services are still often treated as static reserve capacities or power set-points, neglecting the dynamic behaviour required for Fast Frequency Response (FFR), inertia emulation, and other short-timescale services. This thesis, therefore, adopts the concept of Dynamic Virtual Power Plants (DVPPs), which explicitly model internal device dynamics. The thesis develops a coordination framework and associated operation models that enable aggregated DERs to provide reliable dynamic ancillary services under scalability constraints, limited disclosure of local information, and behavioural considerations. It is organised around three themes: modelling DVPP operation for dynamic services, designing distributed and scalable solution methods, and integrating prosumer motivation into ancillary-service provision.