ANID · Technology Anillos · ACT250025

Anillo Project ACT250025: Decision Support Tools for Virtual Power Plants

Models and platforms to plan, operate and integrate Virtual Power Plants (VPPs) into Chile’s grids and regulation, focusing on efficiency, resilience and citizen participation.

Objective

Purpose

Chile’s power system is undergoing an unprecedented transformation: fast-growing renewables, electrified heating and transport, and extreme weather that strains a grid built for large power plants. The August 2024 storm left six million people without power and the February 2025 blackout affected 98.5% of the population. A VPP coordinates thousands of distributed resources (solar panels, batteries, electric vehicles, smart loads) and acts as a virtual power plant that provides local backup and grid services, allowing passive consumers to take part in markets they cannot access today.

Facts

Data

InstrumentANID, Associative Research Centres · Regular Technology Anillos 2025 · ACT250025

Strategic partnersNational Electricity Coordinator · National Energy Commission · distribution utilities

Visiting researchersRamteen Sioshansi (Carnegie Mellon) · Mehrdad Pirnia (Waterloo) · Andy Philpott (Auckland)

Work streams

Scope

Reliable and resilient design

Optimisation models with advanced forecasts that define VPP composition and the most robust grid configuration under intermittency, demand variation and wildfires, storms or earthquakes.

Efficient and autonomous operation

AI-based control strategies, validated in simulators, that coordinate heterogeneous resources in real time, including islanded operation of critical loads.

Markets and regulation

Dynamic pricing, smart contracts and peer-to-peer trading, together with regulatory adjustments defining the role of VPPs in wholesale and retail markets.

Figure · How the project’s research lines connect with each other and with electricity market stakeholders.

Results

Milestones

TechnicalIntegrated toolsFor the first time, tools to design and operate VPPs adapted to Chilean distribution grids.
EconomicMore renewables, less investmentHigher effective use of renewables, deferred infrastructure investment and new revenue for households and SMEs.
SocialResilience and equityBroader access to the energy transition and isolated or vulnerable communities better prepared for emergencies.
TrainingAdvanced human capitalUndergraduate, master’s and doctoral students and a postdoc, linked to the three lines.