Optimal scheduling model for virtual power plants considering spatiotemporal characteristics in electricity carbon market

As global carbon markets and electricity market mechanisms have been gradually improving, the low-carbon transition of power systems has accelerated. The variety of user-side distributed resources, such as electric vehicles (EVs), has become increasingly enriched. Meanwhile, the grid connection ratio of renewable energy on the power generation side has continued to rise. This has further blurred the boundary between power generation and electricity consumption, leading to a sharp increase in randomness and uncertainty. Virtual power plants (VPP) offer a promising pathway to integrate flexible resources and provide balancing capacity for power grids. Aiming to address the challenge of balancing operational Low-carbon performance and economic efficiency in VPP dispatching and operation, this work proposes a VPP spatiotemporal scheduling model that accounts for carbon-electricity trading and distribution network constraints. Initially, the characteristics of diverse distributed energy resources (DERs) are examined, and a refined operational model is constructed for each DER. Subsequently, a VPP spatiotemporal operation model is formulated by integrating distribution network constraints. Finally, a low-carbon economic scheduling model for VPPs is put forward, targeting the minimization of the VPP’s total operational costs, including operation and maintenance costs, carbon trading costs and equipment depreciation costs. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed model. • Refined modeling captures spatiotemporal features of multi-type VPP resources. • Distribution network topology constraints ensure realistic scheduling operability. • A ladder-type carbon trading mechanism facilitates low-carbon economic dispatch. • Carbon-electricity collaboration achieves dual economic and environmental benefits. • The framework overcomes limitations in spatial decoupling and network simplification.