Views: 0 Author: Site Editor Publish Time: 2026-04-07 Origin: Site
Recently, the "Technical Guidelines for Virtual Power Plants (GB/T 47241-2026)" was released. This standard was led by the China Southern Power Grid Research Institute and other units in its formulation. This new national standard will come into effect on September 1, 2026.
It is worth noting that "Technical Guidelines for Virtual Power Plants (GB/T 47241-2026)" is the first national standard in China specifically targeting the full-process technical specifications of virtual power plants.
Before delving into the new national standard, we first need to understand what a virtual power plant is?
In layman's terms, a virtual power plant is not a physical power plant with actual workshops, chimneys, and generators. Instead, it is a cloud-based dispatching system based on Internet of Things, big data, and artificial intelligence technologies.
Virtual power plants integrate numerous scattered small power sources such as rooftop photovoltaic systems, energy storage batteries, electric vehicles, industrial air conditioners, electric boilers, and charging piles, which are adjustable loads, through an intelligent system for unified control, dispatch, and participation in power market transactions.
If the electricity market is compared to a large wholesale market, in the past, distributed photovoltaic power generation was like a group of small street vendors, each generating little electricity, having weak bargaining power and high transaction costs. They could only passively "feed the surplus electricity into the grid" at a relatively low price. The virtual power plant is like organizing these small traders into a large cooperative, conducting unified purchasing and sales. This not only enhances the bargaining power but also reduces transaction costs.
In this new national standard, a more precise official definition has been provided. A virtual power plant is a power operation organization model and system that, based on the power system architecture, utilizes modern information and communication, system integration control and other technologies to aggregate various decentralized resources such as distributed power sources, adjustable loads, and energy storage, and as a new type of business entity, collaboratively participates in the optimization of the power system and power market transactions.
Before the new national standard was issued, the virtual power plant industry was in a stage of "a hundred flowers blooming and each acting independently". The four major "roadblocks" restricting the development of the industry are the lack of unified technical routes, incompatible equipment interfaces, non-standard control capabilities, and incomplete security protection.
For instance, energy storage devices from different manufacturers are like people speaking different dialects, unable to communicate with each other. Virtual power plant platforms in different regions each have their own data formats and communication protocols, making cross-regional collaboration extremely difficult.
GB/T 47241-2026 starts from six core sections and establishes a unified "standard Mandarin" and "traffic rules" for the industry:
First, clarify the overall architecture. The standard stipulates that a virtual power plant (VPP) consists of resources, terminals, an operator technical support system, and data transmission channels, and specifies that it can connect to business systems such as power dispatching, load management, and market trading.
Second, set access thresholds. The standard requires that the total aggregated capacity of a virtual power plant be no less than 10 MW, the total regulation capacity no less than 5 MW, the regulation capacity of a single unit no less than 1 MW, the regulation rate no less than 3% of its regulation capacity per minute, and the continuous regulation duration no less than one hour. These technical indicators set a minimum benchmark for the industry and prevent low-level competition.
Third, standardize access and communication. The standard mandates that the same resource can only access one operator system at the same time. Communication can be implemented via wired private networks, wireless private networks, and other methods, while ensuring data authenticity, real-time performance, integrity, and reliability.
Fourth, strengthen security protection. The standard puts forward security requirements at the system, network, and terminal levels. Control‑related virtual power plants shall also comply with the guidelines on cybersecurity protection for power monitoring systems.
Fifth, unify testing and acceptance procedures. The standard stipulates that virtual power plants must undergo regulation capability assessment and dispatch operation testing by qualified third‑party institutions, with test reports issued accordingly.
Sixth, regulate operation and management. The standard requires that resources can be aggregated into one or more virtual power plant units to participate in the market. Settlement shall be based on legally verified metering data. Meanwhile, virtual power plants may provide integrated energy services such as energy conservation services and carbon management.
It can be said that this standard covers the entire technical process of virtual power plants from construction, access, operation to assessment, taking into account both technological advancement and practical operability, and has formed a full-chain technical support system.
The arrival of the new national standard is by no means the release of an isolated technical document, but rather forms a synergy with a series of top-level policies to jointly reshape the operational rules of China's power market.
First of all, the virtual power plant has officially obtained its "legal status". The "Basic Rules for the Medium and Long-Term Electricity Market" released in 2025 clearly defined new types of business entities for the first time, including virtual power plants, load aggregators, smart microgrids, distributed photovoltaic power, energy storage, etc. as members of the electricity market, greatly expanding the scope of market participants. The "Guiding Opinions on Accelerating the Development of Virtual Power Plants" jointly issued by the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration has further set clear goals: by 2027, the regulation capacity of virtual power plants across the country will reach over 20 million kilowatts, and by 2030, it will reach over 50 million kilowatts.
Secondly, the business model has shifted from "single invitation" to "multi-market participation". In the past, virtual power plants mainly relied on demand response subsidies to survive, and their business models were relatively simple. With the introduction of the new national standard, virtual power plants can simultaneously participate in multiple markets such as the electricity energy market, ancillary service market, and capacity market. Guangdong has taken the lead in promoting virtual power plants for power generation to participate in the spot market transactions of electricity through the "quantity and price reporting" method. As a result, distributed photovoltaic power has transformed from a "passive grid connection" to a "tradable, contractable and settleable" main player.
Furthermore, local policies have been implemented intensively, and the industry has entered an acceleration period. Before and after the release of the new national standard, provinces such as Guangdong, Shandong, Jiangsu, Shaanxi and Qinghai have successively issued development plans for virtual power plants. Shandong has proposed that its regulation capacity will reach over 2 million kilowatts by 2027 and over 4 million kilowatts by 2030. Guangzhou plans to have an access capacity of 5 million kilowatts and a regulation capacity of 1.5 million kilowatts by the end of 2027. There are nearly a hundred virtual power plant operators in the southern region, with a combined capacity of nearly 20 million kilowatts.
Finally, the regulation mechanism of the power system becomes more flexible and efficient. Virtual power plants are essentially a kind of flexible resource on the demand side. They can quickly reduce the load during peak hours of the power grid and consume the surplus electricity from new energy during off-peak hours, achieving "peak shaving and valley filling". The cost of building a virtual power plant is only 1/8 to 1/15 of that of a thermal power plant of the same scale, and its economic advantage is extremely prominent. With the implementation of the new national standard, this low-cost and high-efficiency regulation capability will be systematically incorporated into the power balance system, significantly enhancing the operational economy and reliability of the power system.
