GIZ, under its flagship programme Indo-German Energy Programme – Green Energy Corridors (IGEN-GEC), is assisting India in achieving its target of bringing in more renewable energy to the electricity grid. Under this programme, GIZ conducted a study to identify opportunities for Virtual Power Plants (VPP) in India. VPP is gaining momentum in many regions including North America, China, Australia and Europe, and is heralded as a solution for managing Variable Renewable Energy (VRE) and Distributed Energy Resources (DERs).

The study aims to introduce the concept of VPP to Indian stakeholders and identify potential opportunities through which it could enable the integration of VRE and DERs with the Indian power system.

GIZ, along with the consulting team of ICF Consulting Pvt. Ltd. and Fraunhofer IEE Germany, conducted a stakeholder workshop on “Opportunities for Virtual Power Plants in India” to disseminate learnings from the study. Over 50 participants attended the workshop, including CERC, POSOCO, Discoms, forecasters, and other industry players. The workshop aimed to shed light on the applications of VPP in the Indian context. Technical presentations were followed by a practitioner session and panel discussion to deliberate on the implementation of this concept in India.