Abstract
Virtual power plants can be regarded as systems that have entered the network after restructure of power systems. In fact, these plants are a set of consumers capable of consuming and generating power. In response to widespread implementation of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, further investigation of energy management in this type of power plants seems to be of great value. In effect, these vehicles are able to receive and inject power from/into the network. Hence, study of the effects of these vehicles on management of virtual power plants seems to be illuminative. In this paper, management of power consumption/generation in virtual power plants has been investigated in the presence of hybrid electric vehicles. The objective function of virtual power plants problem management is to minimize the overall costs including not only the costs of energy production in power generation units, fuels, and degradation of batteries of vehicles, but also the costs of purchasing electricity from the network. Furthermore, the constraints on the operational of plants, loads and hybrid vehicles, level of penalty for greenhouse gas emissions ($CO_2$ and $NO_x$) produced by power plants and vehicles, and demand response to the immediate price of market have all been attended to in the present study. GAMS/Cplex software system and sample power system have been employed to pursue computer implementation and simulation.