随着我国能源转型的深入，虚拟电厂（VPP）已成为提升电力系统灵活性、促进可再生能源消纳的关键技术。然而，在当前的实践中，建筑供热这一具备巨大潜力的灵活性资源尚未获得深入开发。随着分布式供热系统的电气化，热泵及配套蓄热设施正展现出从传统“被动负荷”向“柔性电力资源”转变的巨大潜力。

本文探讨了将建筑供热纳入虚拟电厂的路径与价值。文章提出，区域供热系统可单独参与电力市场，或与其他建筑负荷和分布式能源组成规模化的灵活资源池。这种多能互补的模式不仅能显著提升可再生能源的就地消纳水平，提升电力系统整体灵活性与运行效率，还能为供热企业创造调频、削峰填谷等辅助服务收益，有效降低运行支出。

文章分析了热泵通过虚拟电厂参与电网调度的三种国际实践模式：零售电价响应、需求响应调度及直接参与电力批发市场。基于这些实践经验并针对当前的挑战，本文探讨了一个核心问题：政策制定者该如何推动建筑供热从单纯的“用电终端”转变为“消费调节双向资源”？

1. 由零碳园区引领：鼓励分布式供热站和零碳园区率先开展虚拟电厂实践。
2. 建立标准体系：制定标准化的灵活性测算与验证方法，增强电网对分布式资源的信任。
3. 完善补偿机制：通过优化分时电价信号和健全市场准入，公平补偿虚拟电厂在缓解电网拥塞和提供容量支撑方面的多重价值。

通过政策引导与机制创新，聚合热泵与蓄热资源将为电力系统提供低成本、高可靠的调节能力，实现供热行业转型与电力系统安全运行的“双赢”。

本文首刊于《中国能源观察》2026年2月刊

With the deepening of China’s energy transition, Virtual Power Plants (VPPs) have become a key technology for enhancing power system flexibility and promoting the consumption of renewable energy. However, in current practice, building heating—a flexible resource with enormous potential—has yet to be deeply explored.

With the electrification of the district heating systems, heat pumps and their supporting thermal storage facilities are demonstrating significant potential to transform from traditional “passive loads” into “flexible power resources”.

This article explores the pathways and value of integrating building heating into Virtual Power Plants (VPPs). The article points out that district heating systems can participate in the electricity market independently or form a large-scale flexible resource pool by aggregating with other building loads and distributed energy resources. This multi-energy complementary model not only significantly enhances the local consumption of renewable energy and improves the overall flexibility and operational efficiency of the power system but also generates ancillary service revenues for heating companies—such as frequency regulation, peak shaving, and valley filling—effectively reducing operational costs of electric heating.

The article analyzes three international practice models for heat pumps participating in grid dispatch through VPPs: retail price response, demand response, and direct participation in the wholesale electricity market. In light of these practices and the need to address current challenges, the article explores a critical question: how can policymakers transform building heating from a mere “electricity end-user” into a “two-way consumption and flexible resource”?

1. Lead with Zero-Carbon Parks: Encourage distributed heating stations and zero-carbon parks to take the lead in VPP practices.
2. Establish Standard Systems: Develop standardized flexibility measurement and verification methods to enhance the power grid’s trust in distributed resources.
3. Improve Compensation Mechanisms: Fairly compensate the multi-dimensional value of VPPs in alleviating grid congestion and providing capacity support by optimizing time-of-use price signals and improving market access.

Through policy guidance and mechanism innovation, aggregating heat pumps and thermal storage resources will provide the power system with low-cost, highly reliable regulation capabilities, achieving a “win-win” for both the heating industry’s transition and the safe operation of the power system.