Definition
A Virtual Power Plant (VPP) is a cloud-based control system that aggregates and coordinates distributed energy resources - such as batteries, solar installations, heat pumps, and flexible industrial consumption - and presents them collectively in the power market as a single unit. The VPP operator controls the resources in real time based on market signals, grid needs, and electricity prices. VPPs enable many small, unpredictable energy resources to participate in the balancing market and the regulating power market, which would otherwise require large and controllable capacity. Technologically, VPPs tie together IoT sensors, real-time communication (MQTT, RESTRepresentational State Transfer - architectural style for APIs based on HTTP and resource-oriented design.), and prediction algorithms.