A virtual power plant (VPP) is a hybrid system that can be seen as a black box for hedging the risks of distributed energy grid connection and participation in electricity market. Variation of participants will lead to different VPP structures and different risk characteristics, how to handle these risks is the important issues in researches and applications of VPP. This paper introduces the latest research of VPP, basic facts are illustrated from three aspects: risk factors, risk measurement and handling methods in three time-horizon market in combination with literature, then the distinctions of risk measurement and handling methods are summarized based on diverse risk sources. At last, we find that financial tools are a good way to deal with the risks of VPP, and try to help other researchers in the future.

virtual power plant, risk factor, risk measurement, risk handling, financial tools