Virtual Power Plant Sector Turns to Hardware Loop, 470 Projects Nationwide

The virtual power plant industry is shifting from software platform construction to a hardware closed-loop deployment. At a recent industry forum, stakeholders across the value chain reached a consensus that achieving the dispatch capabilities of being “observable, measurable, controllable, and adjustable” requires the integration and retrofitting of terminal hardware devices. This transition has ignited demand in the power hardware market, covering products such as smart terminals, edge controllers, and metering devices, providing foundational support for large-scale adoption. According to data from the National Energy Administration, as of the end of 2025, the number of virtual power plant projects nationwide reached 470, an increase of nearly 200 year on year. The tested maximum regulation capacity reached 16.85 million kilowatts, up approximately 70% year on year. Each project’s deployment necessitates terminal retrofits for photovoltaic inverters, energy storage systems, charging piles, building air conditioning, and industrial load acquisition and control equipment, involving metering upgrades and edge controller installation, making hardware retrofitting a sustained market investment. In the hardware product segment, air conditioning load, as the largest flexible adjustable resource, holds a central position. Taking Shanghai as an example, the measured regulation capacity exceeded 1.5 million kilowatts, of which air conditioning load contributed 354,800 kilowatts. Industry-wide data show that air conditioning energy consumption accounts for 60% to 70% of total energy consumption in commercial buildings, while regulation space for lighting and elevators is limited. To address the incompatibility of control systems among traditional air conditioning brands, several manufacturers have launched standardized smart control devices that support all categories of air conditioning, including multi-split systems, water-cooled units, and fan-coil units. A single controller can parallel multiple units, lowering the barrier for third-party retrofits. The total investment for equipping and retrofitting a standard office building’s entire air conditioning system is approximately RMB 100,000 to 200,000. Edge controllers, serving as the unified integration carriers for photovoltaic, energy storage, charging piles, computing centers, and industrial loads, have become a key focus for manufacturers. Some products are compatible with over 50 industrial and power communication protocols and have been integrated into industrial enterprises in multiple park projects. Smart metering terminals and circuit breakers are also critical components. Traditional devices only provide basic protection and metering functions and cannot output real-time three-phase voltage and current telemetry data. New smart circuit breakers can output this information in real time, meeting the load monitoring, energy management, and settlement requirements of virtual power plants. Several enterprises have already deployed full-stack self-developed hardware products, including sensors, protection devices, metering instruments, and coordination controllers, and integrated them into the virtual power plant system. Policy momentum supports the expansion of hardware deployment. In 2026, 16 provinces have already opened relevant markets. According to grid enterprise criteria, the electricity spot market is expected to be fully operational by 2027. By then, competition in the virtual power plant market will focus on the cost and reliability of hardware terminal access and retrofitting, supporting a complete closed loop for intelligent regulation.