100GREEN Talks Vladyslav Sokolovskyi: Does Ukraine Need Virtual Power Plants?

Can electricity consumers become active participants in the energy system and help support the grid during periods of peak demand?

Global 100 RE Ukraine has published an article examining Google’s decision to scale up a virtual power plant (VPP) within the US PJM power grid to more than 1 GW.

The concept involves aggregating thousands of distributed energy resources — residential and industrial battery storage systems, local power generation, and flexible electricity demand — into a unified system capable of responding to grid needs.

In the latest episode of 100GREEN Talks, Vladyslav Sokolovskyi, Chairman of the Solar Energy Association of Ukraine, discusses what this approach means for the development of distributed energy resources and how relevant such a model could be for Ukraine.

Virtual power plants are fundamentally transforming the role of electricity consumers. Rather than simply drawing power from the grid, consumers can now flexibly adjust their electricity consumption, store energy, and feed it back into the system when needed.

For the power system, this creates an opportunity to gain additional flexibility without having to build new large-scale generation facilities every time additional capacity is required. For owners of battery storage systems and local generation assets, it provides an economic mechanism that allows their resources to deliver value beyond meeting their own energy needs.

For Ukraine, this topic is particularly relevant amid the rapid expansion of distributed generation and energy storage systems. The next challenge is to determine how these resources can be aggregated, enabled to participate fully in electricity markets, and utilized to support grid balancing and overall system resilience.

Could virtual power plants become the next stage in the development of distributed energy in Ukraine? Watch the latest episode of 100GREEN Talks to find out.