Multi-phase techno-economic framework for energy wheeling via generation capacity design of microgrids and virtual power plants

The paradigm shift of power markets towards the smart grid, involves mass energy transfer between entities and requires the support of effective policies under comprehensive framework. This paper presents a technical-economic framework for energy wheeling (FEW) that encompass a self-sufficient smart energy network of regional microgrids and virtual power plants. The generation capacity design of regional microgrids (MGs) is in accordance with the forecasted load of the regional population, whilst MG’s excess energy is made available for wheeling. The Facebook Prophet forecasting model is used to forecast the load in accordance to regional population growth for twenty years. Each virtual power plant (VPP) is the coalition of wind and solar resources based regional MGs. The underlying network of regional VPPs supports the wheeling framework by communicating with each other through a trading platform that follows an energy distribution model (EDM), based on intelligent publisher–subscriber (Pub/Sub) pattern. The results of this framework are implemented on a developing country i.e. Pakistan. Through this framework, 39.9 MW solar and wind energy will be injectable in the country’s power system, thus raising the renewables share from 4.6% to 4.7% of the total generation capacity. The achieved results are supported with economic analysis.