The growing deployment of PV and windpower, “intermittent nature and lack of storage facilities are …making it more challenging to balance demand and supply and to stay within the capacity limits of the electricity grid. A community-based Virtual Power Plant (cVPP) facilitates local community energy initiatives to aggregate distributed generation and flexibility through an Energy Management System (EMS) platform which models price changes, energy flows and weather conditions, and thereby helps to solve the grid problems. Being organized by the community and driven by their needs, a cVPP works for citizens: it enables energy communities to manage energy demand and supply within their community and to trade energy and flexibility on markets, which helps democratise the energy system. In the current regulatory framework the viability of cVPP business models is limited.”
[Source: https://vb.nweurope.eu/projects/project-search/cvpp-community-based-virtual-power-plant/]