The 2025 (3rd) Suzhou Virtual Power Plant Ecosystem Forum and New-Type Business Entities Assisting Enterprise Energy Transformation Conference was successfully held.

On April 18, with the support of the Suzhou Development and Reform Commission, the 2025 (3rd) Suzhou Virtual Power Plant Ecosystem Forum and the New-Type Market Entities Assisting Enterprise Energy Transformation Conference, jointly organized by the State Grid (Suzhou) Urban Energy Research Institute (hereinafter referred to as "State Grid (Suzhou) Urban Research Institute") and SMM Information & Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "SMM"), was held in Suzhou. As a concurrent forum of the 2025 (10th) New Energy Industry Expo, this forum brought together over 800 experts, scholars, enterprise representatives, and government officials from the energy and power sectors both domestically and overseas. They engaged in in-depth discussions on topics such as international experiences and national policies of virtual power plants, as well as the pathways for virtual power plants to enter the market. Leadership Speeches Lu Chenjun, Deputy Director of the Suzhou Development and Reform Commission, stated in his speech that Suzhou is a major industrial city and a major energy-consuming city, but it is also a city with limited energy resources. Currently, Suzhou ranks first in the province in terms of installed power generation capacity. The power grid construction has basically formed a grid architecture supported by ultra-high voltage power supply, with a 500 kV grid as the backbone, 220 kV grids operating in partitions, and a meshed distribution network. The industrial electricity consumption and total social electricity consumption of the city rank first and second, respectively, among national cities. It is particularly important to provide safe, stable, low-carbon, and efficient power supply for high-quality development. Virtual power plants are an important force in promoting energy transformation and achieving the "dual carbon" goals. Suzhou has planned ahead and attached great importance to the construction of virtual power plants, achieving significant results in the construction of adjustable load capacity. In March this year, the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration issued the "Guiding Opinions on Accelerating the Development of Virtual Power Plants," which pointed out the direction for our construction of virtual power plants. It is hoped that power enterprises, research institutes, and new-type market entities will actively participate, explore the Suzhou path for the development and transformation of the power system, and contribute Suzhou's strength to achieving energy transformation and the "dual carbon" goals. Lu Huibin, Chairman of the State Grid (Suzhou) Urban Energy Research Institute, stated in his speech that the institute was born in Suzhou and is rooted in Suzhou, with the mission of serving Suzhou's energy transformation and development. In recent years, the institute has focused on customer-side energy consumption, conducting extensive basic research and practical exploration. Through cooperation with ecosystem partners, it has provided energy planning and management support for various levels of government in Suzhou, as well as support services for enterprises in energy conservation, carbon reduction, cost reduction, and efficiency improvement. This year marks the third Suzhou Virtual Power Plant Ecosystem Forum. We are co-hosting this forum with SMM to promote better interaction between the Yangtze River Delta metal industry, which is characterized by large total energy consumption, significant energy-saving potential, export pressure, and green development pressure, and numerous energy service enterprises. It is hoped that virtual power plants can become the engine driving the upgrade of Suzhou's new energy industry. The institute will continue to provide high-quality services to new-type market entities, and by building an open and shared virtual power plant ecosystem with all parties, make more contributions to Suzhou's energy transformation and the development of the new energy industry. Yi Yanting, Vice President of SMM, stated that as an industrial service platform rooted in the bulk commodity, non-ferrous, and ferrous metal sectors for over 20 years, SMM deeply understands the symbiotic relationship between the energy revolution and the non-ferrous metal industry. Currently, virtual power plants are reshaping the coordinated mode of generation-grid-load-storage in the power system, and this transformation is strongly supported by the non-ferrous metal industry chain, from nickel, cobalt, and lithium in batteries to copper and aluminum in ultra-high voltage grids, and various rare earth materials in smart terminals. The innovative application of metal materials is becoming an essential element for the large-scale development of virtual power plants. The essence of virtual power plants is the digital aggregation of energy resources, which requires resource integration capabilities, market responsiveness, and technological penetration. These three characteristics align perfectly with SMM's DNA. Through tools such as the SMM price index, supply chain data, and capacity maps, SMM has built an industrial internet platform covering tens of millions of enterprise nodes globally. In the future, SMM will extend its digital capabilities in the bulk commodity and non-ferrous metal sectors further into the energy field, jointly building a virtual power plant industry ecosystem. It is hoped that this forum will serve as a starting point for the revolution of digital energy and the metal era. International Experiences and National Policies Session The morning forum was chaired by Jin Ting, Deputy General Manager of the State Grid (Suzhou) Urban Energy Research Institute, with seven experts sharing insights on the theme of "International Experiences and National Policies." Zheng Zhanghua, Senior Researcher at the Global Energy Interconnection Group Co., Ltd., shared the "Global Outlook and Experience Analysis of Virtual Power Plants." He pointed out that virtual power plants are an important form of promoting the deep participation of massive resources on the demand side in the friendly interaction of generation-grid-load-storage and the efficient utilization of new energy. As of 2024, the total installed capacity of global virtual power plants is about 230 million kW, with rapid growth in recent years. Based on the Global Virtual Power Plant Evaluation and Analysis Model (GEAM) developed by the team, it is expected that the global virtual power plant development scale will reach 900 million kW by 2030. Although countries around the world have high expectations for the development prospects of virtual power plants, there are also some common issues and risks, mainly manifested in the uncertainty of sustainable profitability of projects, the need for improvement and unification of operation management standards, and constraints on data security protection. It is necessary to promote the participation of virtual power plants in all types of market transactions, clarify the measures and applicable scenarios for the execution of virtual power plant clearing plans, and establish and improve the standard system for all aspects of virtual power plants. Niu Wenjuan, Senior Engineer at the Economic and Technical Research Institute of State Grid Jiangsu Electric Power Company, delivered a keynote speech titled "Typical International Experiences in Virtual Power Plant Market Mechanisms." She pointed out that the underlying resources for the development of virtual power plants mainly fall into three categories: adjustable loads, distributed power sources, and energy storage systems (ESS). In reality, different resource types often aggregate to form new levels of resources participating in virtual power plants. From the experiences of various countries, virtual power plants in California, US, can participate in the energy market, spinning reserve market, and non-spinning reserve market through the proxy demand response resource model and the distributed energy supplier model; virtual power plants in the UK can participate in the ancillary service market, capacity market, and spot market through the distributed energy aggregation and demand response model; virtual power plants in Germany can participate in the spot power market, balancing market, redispatch, interruptible load bidding, and balancing group management through the direct trading model and aggregator model. International experiences suggest that we should further clarify the market entity status of virtual power plants, revise market rules, broaden the profit channels for virtual power plants to participate in the spot market and ancillary service market, promote flexible electricity price mechanisms, and achieve sustainable business models. Cao Yuchen, Researcher at the Energy Internet Research Institute of State Grid Energy Research Institute Co., Ltd., pointed out in the keynote speech "Analysis of International Virtual Power Plant Practical Experiences and Development Suggestions" that from the development experiences of typical foreign countries, good market mechanisms have laid a solid foundation for the commercial operation of virtual power plants, targeted laws and regulations have provided positive guarantees for the development of virtual power plants, the balancing group mechanism under the high proportion of new energy and rich trading varieties have provided broad market opportunities for virtual power plants, and high retail electricity prices and mandatory market entry regulations for distributed power sources have made it easier for virtual power plants to attract various resources to expand the aggregation scale, which are experiences worth learning from. Domestically, the scale of virtual power plants in the State Grid's operating area has approached 10 million kW, the national level has clearly supported the development of virtual power plants, and the standard framework system has been basically established, but core standards still need to be accelerated. At the same time, all parties are accelerating practical exploration, but it is necessary to further form a consensus on the development connotation and broaden the depth and breadth of related mechanisms and models of virtual power plants. Zhao Xiaodong, Senior Engineer at the Energy Research Institute of the China Academy of Macroeconomic Research, pointed out in the keynote speech "Analysis of Several Key Issues for the High-Quality Development of Virtual Power Plants in China" that virtual power plants are an extension of the long-term practice of power demand-side management in China, and are transitioning from research and demonstration to promotion and application. Currently, China has introduced policies defining virtual power plants as new-type market entities, exploring their inclusion in the scope of grid dispatch management, and issuing special guiding opinions. He believes that issues such as whether virtual power plants need to meet the regulation standards of traditional power plants, how the normal operation of virtual power plants should be integrated into the power market, and whether the power market alone is sufficient to support the value realization of virtual power plants still need to be discussed. It is recommended to further accurately set the capacity building goals of virtual power plants based on diversified needs such as different time scales, regulation accuracy, and adjustment varieties, further optimize the design of China's power market access mechanism, accelerate the promotion of technical characteristics and implementation functions as key considerations for power market access standards and responsibilities, and enrich the multi-dimensional value realization scenarios of virtual power plants. Although the power market is an important economic source for aggregation incentives, the value realization of virtual power plants should be comprehensively considered from the dimensions of the power system, industrial economy, public management, environmental value, and data elements. Wang Shuyang, Virtual Power Plant Business Director at the Energy Consumption Research Institute of the China Electric Power Research Institute, shared "Thoughts on the Development Model and Technical Form of Virtual Power Plants." She pointed out that currently, virtual power plants mainly participate in the electric energy (day-ahead spot) market, peak shaving ancillary service market, and market-oriented demand response, and are exploring participation in the frequency regulation ancillary service market, but are still in the early stages of development. The technical architecture for virtual power plants to access the grid-side system is mainly divided into two categories: one is to access the new-type power load management system and interact with the trading, marketing, and dispatch systems; the other is to directly access the power dispatch automation system, where virtual power plants need to have second-level response capabilities when participating in frequency regulation. Under the guidance of the National Standardization Committee, in 2021, the China Electricity Council organized experts from State Grid, China Southern Power Grid, and universities to conduct research on the domestic virtual power plant standard system, forming a pre-research report. Recently, a joint working group was established by nine national, industry, and group standard committees, forming a new version of the standard system covering six major categories, 15 sub-categories, and 31 items. As of now, two national standards have been released and will take effect in February 2025; one national standard plan has been announced, and three industry standards have been established and are being promoted for drafting. She suggested that more measures should be introduced to accelerate the development of core standards and create an industrial development ecosystem. Zheng Tao, Deputy Chief Engineer of the R&D Center of NARI Technology Co., Ltd., shared "Construction Ideas for Domestic Typical Virtual Power Plant Projects." He pointed out that the operation of virtual power plants requires standardization as a prerequisite, marketization as a direction, and scale and normalization as goals. Chief Engineer Zheng introduced the core business processes of domestic typical virtual power plant projects from six aspects: registration and certification, unified access, capability detection, trading services, regulation services, and effect evaluation, and introduced the overall architecture, functional architecture, and technical framework of a series of software developed by NARI, including the virtual power plant operation service platform for grid enterprises and the virtual power plant operator platform for operators. He stated that the series of software has been applied in provinces such as Shanxi, Ningxia, Hubei, and Shandong, and has been used by comprehensive energy companies and large energy enterprises such as Ningxia Comprehensive Energy and Huarun Shandong. Finally, he pointed out that special attention should be paid to the platform's network security defense capabilities and continuous functional iteration capabilities in the future. Liao Yu, Founder of the German Chinese New Energy Association and Deputy Director of the Carbon Neutrality Committee of the Sino-German Innovation Alliance, delivered a keynote speech titled "What Kind of Power Market and Volatility Opportunities Do Virtual Power Plants + Microgrids + V2G Need?" He pointed out that the biggest challenge of the new-type power system dominated by new energy lies in the continuously increasing requirements for power and time dimension management capabilities, which also brings many opportunities to the market in various countries, including the frequency regulation reserve market, capacity market, demand-side response, weather power generation forecasting, and critical peak period electricity prices.He proposed that a virtual power plant (VPP) needs to aggregate resources, building a full-power dimension new energy service under the scenario of a panoramic energy internet. This includes constructing a complete energy supply chain within different regional scales, planning and commercially developing electric vehicles and charging facilities. It also encompasses a "micro-grid" core for distributed energy and household ESS, as well as an energy interaction and price comparison information app, a "digital grid" core for digital grid data models and data-based operation and maintenance services, a "micro-grid" core for smart grid automation and integrated energy management system distribution solutions at the park level, and an "economic grid" core for VPP auxiliary frequency regulation and electricity trading software, power trading platforms, and investment strategies. The afternoon session on the topic of Jiangsu VPP market entry pathways was chaired by Yi Yanting, Deputy General Manager of SMM. Eight experts shared their insights on "Jiangsu VPP Market Entry Pathways." Yi Wenfei, Supervisor of the Automation Department of the Relay Protection and Automation Center of State Grid Jiangsu Electric Power Research Institute, presented "Construction Practice of Provincial VPP Dispatch Control System." Using Jiangsu's practice as an example, he detailed the dispatch control and operation management systems of VPPs. The system targets micro-grids and VPPs, establishing a main-distribution-micro collaborative control system through "cloud-to-cloud" and "edge-to-cloud" technologies. It improves the existing dispatch system and distribution automation system, achieving observable, measurable, adjustable, and controllable distributed resources such as micro-grids and VPPs. It also addresses business scenarios like peak shaving, frequency regulation, and reserve capacity, enabling hierarchical, zonal, and time-based coordinated control. Additionally, the system can monitor system balance resources, analyze and control the operational status of cross-river sections, and manage heavy overloads in transformers and distribution transformers. Liao Siyang, Associate Professor at the School of Electrical Engineering and Automation, Wuhan University, delivered a keynote speech titled "Collaborative Carbon Reduction Control Technology and Engineering Practice of Industrial VPP and New-Type Power System." He pointed out that the electricity consumption of electrolytic loads and electric arc furnace loads accounts for about 18% of total social electricity consumption. If these loads participate in regulation, they can significantly enhance grid flexibility. Many high-energy-consuming loads, after modification, can have load-side response capabilities, similar to ESS. For aluminum electrolysis loads, typical projects can continuously adjust power within ±25% and operate for 4 hours without causing solidification in the electrolytic cells. For steel electric arc furnaces, the team proposed two control methods: "constant impedance voltage adjustment" and "constant voltage impedance adjustment." For polysilicon loads, rapid power control can be achieved while ensuring active power control meets production requirements. Liao then introduced the architecture of the large-capacity industrial load real-time control system and the equipment modification plan. The team's high-energy-consuming load control projects have been applied in over ten provinces, including Inner Mongolia, Hebei, and Shanxi, providing primary and secondary frequency regulation support to the grid. Chen Guang, Deputy Director of the Energy Strategy and Planning Institute of State Grid (Suzhou) Urban Research Institute, shared "Suzhou's 14th Five-Year Plan VPP Development Pathway and Suggestions." He noted that Suzhou's policies supporting VPP development started early, with existing VPP projects showing "multi-subject, multi-level" characteristics, indicating a favorable industrial advantage. He suggested that while leveraging the power regulation role of VPPs, Suzhou should fully utilize the benefits brought by VPP industry development, providing pilot demonstration scenarios for the country. He recommended a three-stage market cultivation: In the initial stage (2024-2025), actively promote VPP concepts and explore the establishment of industry standards and norms; in the scale-up phase (2026-2029), enter a period of scaled competition and healthy elimination under the backdrop of the spot market; in the ecosystem improvement phase (2030-2035), the importance of local industry cultivation roles will gradually diminish, and the bottom-up incubation effect of the ecosystem will become more evident. Finally, he suggested that Suzhou improve support measures by conducting top-level VPP industry planning, establishing a VPP industry service mechanism, forming a VPP industry promotion mechanism, and creating a VPP industry innovation mechanism. Qian Yanan, Deputy General Manager of GCL Zheneng Integrated Energy Service Co., Ltd., shared "Digital Empowerment of Energy Assets - GCL VPP." He introduced GCL VPP's flexible resource service system, which includes a self-developed "1+1+1" energy management aggregation platform, achieving 100% data monitoring, response time <1 second, and 98% regulation accuracy. GCL has deeply participated in the formulation of one national and two industry-level VPP standards, holding 56 VPP-related technology patents and 141 software copyrights. In the Jiangsu market, GCL helped users increase revenue by over 20 million yuan in 2023 and 30 million yuan in 2024. Through digital means, GCL continuously empowers various energy assets, such as distributed PV, user-side ESS, charging and swapping stations, and grid-side ESS. For example, in Q1 2025, GCL completed 109 distributed green power trading projects, increasing user revenue by over 0.01 yuan per kWh. Looking ahead, he believes that the VPP market size will grow significantly and develop in synergy with the spot market. VPPs will show trends of refined management and diversified participation, transitioning from macro-scale organization to refined organization, achieving supply-demand balance through micro-grids, and enriching regulatory resources. He suggested promoting industry development by adopting separate metering for flexible resources in VPPs and expanding VPP application scenarios. Zhang Qiang, Deputy General Manager of Jiangsu Huagong New Energy Technology Co., Ltd., shared "Practice of Regional Generation-Grid-Load-Storage Integration VPP Platform." Huagong Energy has built a multi-level platform architecture from "device-level—user-level—regional-level—province-city-level," integrating energy flow, data flow, and capital flow. At the regional level, the platform can monitor generation-grid-load-storage resources, build source-load interaction capabilities, and manage government affairs. At the enterprise level, it can achieve smart energy and carbon management, VPP operations, power quality management, and intelligent power operation and maintenance. Currently, Huagong Energy has established regional-level smart energy and generation-grid-load-storage integration control platforms in 16 regions across 5 provinces, serving over 3,000 large industrial and commercial users nationwide with significant results. Next, Huagong Energy will standardize the solution of "green power supply + generation-grid-load-storage integration control + power market trading" to support "dual carbon" construction in more regions. Dong Wenqi, VPP Business Project Expert of GoodWe Technology Co., Ltd., presented "GoodWe VPP Practice Sharing." He summarized GoodWe VPP's development path as "three steps and four transformations": "Three steps" refer to moving from digital PV plants to digital PV ESS systems, and then to VPPs; "four transformations" include digitalization, systematization, intelligence, and marketization, ultimately connecting the last mile of the energy internet. GoodWe provides comprehensive digital energy solutions for new energy investors, integrated energy service providers, and VPP operators, including full-process digital asset management for PV ESS charging stations, smart park micro-grid management for multi-energy type system control, and VPP operation management to enable continuous value addition through ancillary services, demand response, green power trading, and spot trading. GoodWe has provided settlement services for over 600 sites, achieving an accuracy rate of over 99.8%, with 2,000+ sites reaching a 90% consumption rate, short-term and ultra-short-term power prediction accuracy of 91%, and smart scheduling algorithms that can increase storage potential by 4 times, reducing electricity costs by up to 13%. Finally, he introduced GoodWe's practices in Anhui and Wuhan. Fu Haiming, Deputy General Manager of Shanghai CaiRi Energy Technology Co., Ltd., gave a keynote speech titled "Application and Reflection of VPP Under the New Policy of Full Entry of New Energy into the Power Market." He pointed out that the policy of full entry of new energy into the market marks the formal entry of new energy into a market-oriented investment and operation model. VPPs are a solution to the investment and operational uncertainties brought by the marketization of new energy. Typical application scenarios include "generation-grid-load-storage + electricity sales" collaborative optimization based on price signals, cross-regional VPP transactions for risk hedging, and green power trading with user-side green certificate allocation. CaiRi Energy has built a platform architecture that integrates "source-grid-load-storage coordination" horizontally and "cloud-edge-end coordination" vertically, achieving more precise dispatch and efficient resource utilization through aggregated optimization, accurate market fluctuation analysis through AI prediction, and low-latency, high-efficiency coordinated dispatch through asset regulation, enhancing transaction response speed. Finally, he introduced the platform's application in typical provinces. Xiang Chen, Director of Power Trading Business at NIO, shared "Practice of Large-Scale Vehicle-Grid Interaction VPP Based on Intelligent Decision-Making." She noted that EV ownership is growing faster than expected, with EVs being "mobile storage" and "time-insensitive loads." Most private cars are used for less than 3 hours daily, making vehicle-grid interaction highly promising. However, vehicle-grid interaction faces challenges such as strong randomness in demand, multiple objectives, and complex constraints. To address this, NIO has developed an algorithm framework that includes scenarios, algorithms, and data, enabling more accurate user demand prediction, second-level strategy optimization, and feedback-based strategy updates. Currently, NIO has 1,767 charging and swapping stations participating in peak shaving, with 338 million kWh of valley filling and peak shaving, saving 112 million yuan. NIO is also actively participating in European frequency regulation markets, achieving daily bidding and an average profit of 680 euros per station in Denmark's primary frequency regulation market, and passing the pre-qualification for secondary frequency regulation in the Netherlands. In China, NIO is collaborating with Huaneng Zhejiang and State Grid Shanghai to explore secondary frequency regulation. She looks forward to the joint efforts of the government, grid companies, automakers, charging and swapping operators, and car owners to advance vehicle-grid interaction. [CLNB 2025 —— Registration Open] CLNB 2025 (10th) New Energy Industry Expo April 16-18, 2025 Suzhou International Expo Center