Integrated Design of Coordinated Control and Communication Transmission for Frequency Regulation in Virtual Power Plants with Power Flow Constraints and Source-Load Uncertainties

The aggregation of heterogeneous and flexible distributed energy resources on the demand side by virtual power plants (VPPs) to provide frequency regulation for power systems has emerged as a novel paradigm. Nevertheless, the frequency regulation of VPPs is challenged by physical network constraints, uncertainties, and communication transmission issues. To address these obstacles, this paper proposes an integrated design method of coordinated control and communication transmission to facilitate VPPs participation in frequency regulation. First, a coordinated control strategy is devised, taking into account power flow constraints and source-load uncertainties. This strategy employs a physical power flow model and uncertainties handling based on the conditional value-at-risk to circumvent grid security issues and mitigate the impacts of uncertainties, thereby enhancing the reliability of VPPs frequency regulation. Moreover, a novel joint design scheme is developed for delay and synchronous control. A distributed biased min-consensus-based routing strategy is proposed to minimize delay. Meanwhile, a waiting mechanism is designed to ensure the synchronous execution of control commands, thus improving the real-time performance and robustness of VPPs frequency regulation. Finally, simulation results validate the efficiency and superiority of the proposed method. © 2026 IEEE.