vpp-sim

The Virtual Power Plant Simulator is an open source project aiming to simulate a neighborhood-scale Virtual Power Plant (VPP) in real time.

The simulator models a local distribution feeder with a mix of flexible and inflexible devices, including:

• ☀️ Residential solar PV
• 🔋 Home battery storage systems
• 🚗 EV charging stations
• 💡 Flexible and baseline household demand
• 🧠 A coordinating aggregator (the "VPP")

The simulation advances in fast-forwarded, discrete time steps (e.g. 5-minute intervals), allowing users to explore different configurations and control strategies in real time through a terminal-based user interface (TUI).

Project Status

🚧 Work in Progress – This repository is under active development and working towards MVP status.

Stay tuned!

Usage

Prerequisites

• Rust (latest stable version recommended)
• Cargo (comes with Rust)

🧩 Running the demo simulation

Running the default binary will trigger a demonstrative 24-step (1-hr interval) simulation with a simple baseload, solar and battery model:

cargo run --release

Expected outputs:

Time (Hr) 0: BaseLoad=1.35 kW, SolarPV=0.00 kW, Battery=1.35 kW (SoC=35.8%), Net=0.00 kW
Time (Hr) 1: BaseLoad=1.42 kW, SolarPV=0.00 kW, Battery=1.42 kW (SoC=20.9%), Net=0.00 kW
...
# high solar generation, battery charging
Time (Hr) 10: BaseLoad=0.39 kW, SolarPV=3.73 kW, Battery=-3.34 kW (SoC=53.6%), Net=0.00 kW
Time (Hr) 11: BaseLoad=0.18 kW, SolarPV=4.72 kW, Battery=-4.54 kW (SoC=96.7%), Net=0.00 kW
...
# no solar generation, battery discharging
Time (Hr) 20: BaseLoad=0.95 kW, SolarPV=0.00 kW, Battery=0.95 kW (SoC=76.3%), Net=0.00 kW
Time (Hr) 21: BaseLoad=1.02 kW, SolarPV=0.00 kW, Battery=1.02 kW (SoC=65.5%), Net=0.00 kW

Documentation

The documentation for this project can be opened locally using:

cargo doc --open

It contains detailed information about the architecture, modules, and usage of the simulator.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.