A Health-Energy Nexus Perspective for Virtual Power Plants: Power Systems Resiliency and Pandemic Uncertainty Challenges

Abstract

This chapter introduces and discusses a novel “health-energy nexus under pandemic uncertainty” concept that arises as a consequence of the current pandemic that we are experiencing worldwide. In light of the pandemic implications on the power and energy systems, we discuss how the global health conditions are tightly connected with the energy consumption needs and how the two areas closely interact with each other. A real-world dataset from the Estonian energy consumption over three years (2018, 2019, 2020), together with information gathered in the recent literature, will be illustrated to motivate the foundations behind the health-energy nexus concept. Opportunities and challenges that lie behind the interaction between health and energy will be outlined, and ways to address the changes in the power systems resiliency due to pandemic conditions will be discussed. Virtual power plants will be presented, as a way to address the pandemic challenges and improve the systems’ resiliency and reliability. A novel concept of Cyber-Physical Health-Energy Systems will be discussed. Moreover, the value of interdisciplinary education and research, together with the novel interdisciplinary domain of energy informatics, will be proposed as key pathways to overcoming the challenges posed by the novel health-energy nexus under pandemic uncertainty.