Abstract

The significant issue for Polish economy is to fulfil the requirements of the EU’s climate and energy policies according to the share of renewable energy sources (RES) in total energy production by 2020 should be equal to 15%. At the end of 2016, the share of RES in total energy production in Poland was only 13.54%. The development of Virtual Power Plant (VPP) is the chance to complete the goal set for 2020 and to increase the development of RES. The VPP is an IT structure which integrates different types of distributed energy sources, flexible consumers and energy storage with each other and with other market segments in real time through a smart grid. The VPP has positive effects on the electricity grid, like the improving energy security as well as grid stability and reliability, optimizing energy resources use, lowering the load – demand response and giving the possibility to manage of electricity surplus in small dispersed energy sources. The main aim of the article is the proposal of a new business model for Virtual Power Plant in Polish conditions. The main aim is accomplished by secondary aims such as (i) describing the concept of virtual organizations, (ii) the review of business models and (iii) the presentation of the legal capabilities to create the virtual power plants. First of all, the literature studies made by authors, point out there is a lack of complex analysis related to the establishing the VPP and its business model. The complex analysis means the analysis consists of technical, legal, economic and ecological aspects. The literature review provides information about virtual organizations in the context of the virtual power plant. The VPP is one of the types of virtual organizations, but the definitions of a VPP are primarily focused on its technical aspect and insufficient attention is paid to the aspect of management and, especially, to a business model. Therefore, in this paper, the legal background to establish the VPP has presented as well as the legal opportunities and threats for creating the VPP in Poland. The legal analysis is the starting point for each practical project. There are shown the legal regulations related to prosumers and supporting energy micro-clusters. These issues require the creation of new products, such as VPP. Next, the review of the business model was made to choose an adequate model. Three models emerge from the analysis, which can be used to build a VPP business model to a greater or lesser extent. The first of them emphasize that the business model is mainly the characteristic relations between customers, clients, partners and suppliers. The second of them underlines the significance of the company’s resources, which can be expanded and used (new customers – new dispersed energy sources), as well as potential sources of future economic benefits (new products – power market, megawatts). The third of them combines the key resources and the key relations which are important for VPPs, and it is compliant with the systemic approach. This approach was chosen for further analysis. The authors presented a new business model concept, where the attention is paid to a cooperation network between different kinds of energy entities (e.g. VPP’ owners, prosumers, the owners of micro-installations and others). The segmentation of potential clients of the VPP was made and eight potential segments were identified in Polish conditions. Two segmentation criteria were used: (i) the kind of product, (ii) the kind of market. The business model is perceived as a method of increasing and exploiting of company’s resources for preparing new products or services for customers in order to obtain the added value (expanding the competitive advantage or increasing profitability). The examples of added values were defined in relating to the identified VPP client segments: (i) a large buyer buying energy under a long-term bilateral contract, (ii) an energy cooperative, (iii) an owner of micro-installation, (iv) a company that owns energy storage, e.g. hybrid vehicle charging stations, storages, (v) energy cluster. Additionally, for all customer segments there are specified (1) relations which connect VPP with the representatives of a specific customer segment and (2) communication channels which significantly affect the final impression on the client. In the knowledge economy, the IT tools are the main kind of communication channel, and IT resources are the key function in the VPP business model. Future research should focus on describing the remaining elements of the business model for each customer segments such as revenue streams, key resources, key activities, key partners and cost structure. In the next step economic capabilities to create the VPP should be analysed with special attention paid to the evaluation of the economic efficiency of the VPP. Different scenarios including consumer segment and value proposition should be taken into consideration. It is necessary to perform an economic analysis of the data coming from a real pilot installation. 

Keywords: business model, micro-cluster, network, virtual power plant, consumer’s segments.

JEL Classification: D21, M21, L22, O25.

Cite as: Ropuszynska-Surma, E., & Weglarz, M. (2018). A virtual power plant as a cooperation network. Marketing and Management of Innovations, 4, 136-149. https://doi.org/10.21272/mmi.2018.4-13

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

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