From Distributed Generation to Virtual Power Plants: The Future of Electric Power Systems

Due to the reduction of fossil fuel production quantities, the communities started to ask: what is the future of electric power systems? Alternative answers and solutions are proposed to be applied instead of conventional fossil fuel power plants. Renewable energy sources are leading these alternatives like wind energy and photovoltaics. From 1990s, consumers start to use dispersed stochastically renewable energy sources in a small scale, in the so called distributed generation. Gradually, the distributed generations started to interconnect together. Developments in communications, computers and information systems, forced these interconnections to take a new shape of electric power systems and called smart grids. The future look to move from smart grids to super grids is really lead to a new concept; microgrids. With deregulation roles, digital power networks, is started to take a place as a new energy-on-demand approach to electric power systems. To serve the approach of digital power networks, the active network management, internet of -thinking-things and the transactive energy concepts are carried out for the adequate operation of these digital networks. This paper will demonstrate the eight terminologies and technologies: distributed generation, smart grid, super grid, microgrid, digital power network, active network management, internet of -thinking-things, and transactive energy concept. Also, it will study the leading reasons to consider the virtual power plants to be the suitable future type of electric power systems.