On June 5, at a ceremony marking World Environment Day, Aden Energies and its longtime energy client AB InBev (Budweiser) met at their Ziyang Brewery in Sichuan and signed a milestone contract for virtual power plant (VPP) collaboration. This is the first such agreement between the two, and will open a new avenue for innovation and energy technology in what is already a multi-site collaboration supporting Budweiser’s decarbonization and energy transition.  

Under the new agreement, Aden Energies will manage integration of the Ziyang plant’s renewable energy and battery storage infrastructure into a central control platform. With this data connected, Aden Energies will then serve as Budweiser’s virtual power plant operator, delivering a solution which allows it to manage the site’s energy in a more dynamic and data-driven way. With the VPP in place, the facility and its energy systems can track, modulate and automate energy response to complex information from:

• on-site energy resources at the Ziyang brewery: in this case, the site’s solar PV, battery storage system (BESS), and industrial heating and cooling assets 
• Predicted and sudden shifts in energy demand and prices on the regional grid 
• Other local facilities which are participating in the VPP
  
  
  

Virtual power plant: Understanding the opportunity

While this virtual power plant project marks a first step for Aden Energies and Budweiser, the VPP market is steadily growing and gaining recognition as a key accelerator of large-scale energy transition. With a market forecast to reach 16.9 billion USD by 2030, the Sichuan VPP project is one of many such networks being established in Asia and worldwide.

A virtual power plant can be understood as a system that leverages advanced software technology to integrate several smaller power-generating and energy-storing units spread across different locations into a single, optimized energy resource. This technology uses sophisticated algorithms, data analytics, and real-time monitoring to control and optimize these distributed energy resources (DERs), making them operate collectively in a way that enhances energy production, storage, and distribution. 

In the context of industrial operations, participants in a virtual power plants can: 

• Improve operational efficiency by ensuring energy consumption is aligned with production needs and grid demands.  
• Respond to requests from the grid to generate new lines of income by selling extra energy resources from renewables and storage during peak and off-peak periods 
• Advance corporate decarbonization goals by maximizing the use of renewable energy and reducing carbon emissions.  

Aden Energies General Manager Fulvio Bartolucci commented “virtual power plant is one of the most exciting areas where Aden Energies is operating today, and where large-scale industrial consumers such as Budweiser can really multiply the speed and impact of their renewable energy and decarbonization initiatives. As we celebrated in today’s event, Budweiser has already made significant advances in its energy transition, and met its 25% decarbonization goal ahead of schedule. We are excited to accompany them on the next steps of their decarbonization journey, both through virtual power plant and investments in their energy transition.”