Virtual Power Plants (VPPs) are making serious inroads in China, with Shanghai and other locations reporting on their success as well as planned initiatives to further promote their use. The National Energy Administration’s “Science and Technology Help the Economy 2020” document, released this week, featured Virtual Power Plants as one of its special projects for the energy sector. In the case of cities, the emphasis is on increasing efficiency on the consumer side by shifting some power consumption outside of peak hours. However, the management systems of a VPP are equally useful for handling intermittent renewable generation, especially distributed generation, and are also being seen in rural areas, balancing energy storage, wind and solar. China trialled some of its first…