On July 28, 2026, Energy Practice Camp, Asia's leading hands-on training platform for the energy industry, announced that the first session of its newly launched "Virtual Power Plant & Carbon Asset Practice" online course attracted over 1,300 registrants, covering professionals from power, chemical, steel, and carbon trading sectors. The course is centered on the philosophy of "practical and results-driven," simulating real scenarios such as virtual power plant dispatch, green power trading matching, and carbon quota compliance, offering energy talent a one-stop skill upgrade from theory to practice. This marks Energy Practice Camp's precise entry into the emerging demand blue ocean at the intersection of electricity market reform and dual-carbon goals after years of deep industry training.
Course Design: Targeting Pain Points with Immersive Practice
The current course runs for 8 weeks with 16 modules, covering five core areas: virtual power plant architecture design, distributed energy aggregation, electricity spot market trading strategies, green certificate and carbon quota hedging, and carbon asset valuation and risk management. Abandoning traditional rote teaching, learners complete operations in a dedicated simulation system, including VPP capacity configuration, day-ahead quoting, real-time balancing, and carbon quota trading. The system automatically evaluates strategy performance based on market clearing results.
"Many practitioners still view virtual power plants at a conceptual level, but actual operations involve complex aspects like data collection, aggregation models, market gaming, and settlement rules," said Professor Zhang Ming, Chief Instructor of Energy Practice Camp and former Senior Analyst at North China Power Trading Center. "Our simulation environment is built on real market parameters and historical data. The intuition and strategies learners develop through trial and error can be directly applied to their roles in large power users, power sales companies, or aggregators."
The course also features a special "Carbon Asset Synergy" module. Learners must manage their carbon quota positions while simulating power generation and consumption, making buy-or-sell decisions against carbon price fluctuations. First-session learner Zheng Yuan, Deputy Manager of Energy Management at a steel group in Jiangsu, told reporters: "The steel industry is both a large electricity consumer and a major carbon emitter. Previously we managed carbon and electricity separately. This course showed me the arbitrage of linking them—buying more green power when carbon prices are low to reduce emission intensity while selling surplus quotas. Such practical experience is exactly what we urgently need."
Market Demand Surge: Electricity Reforms and Dual-Carbon Goals Drive New Careers
The surge in virtual power plants and carbon asset management stems from accelerating electricity market reform and the expansion of China's national carbon market. By 2026, the framework of a unified national electricity market is largely in place, with provincial spot markets running continuously, and policy doors fully open for emerging participants like distributed PV, energy storage, and electric vehicles. Virtual power plants, as the "energy brain" aggregating distributed resources, have become key to power system regulation. According to the latest data from the National Energy Administration on July 25, 2026, by the end of June 2026, over 200 VPP pilot projects had been built nationwide, with an aggregated capacity of 15 GW, expected to exceed 100 GW by 2030.
Meanwhile, in 2026, the national carbon market officially covered sectors such as steel, cement, and aluminum smelting, expanding total quota to 8 billion tonnes, covering approximately 6,000 regulated enterprises. Demand for carbon asset management and trading roles has soared, but the supply of professional talent is severely insufficient. Energy Practice Camp's survey shows that over 60% of regulated enterprises admit to "lacking dedicated carbon asset staff or teams," urgently requiring interdisciplinary talents with both electricity market knowledge and carbon management capabilities.
"Energy Practice Camp's course exactly fills this gap," noted Wang Yiping, Council Member of China Energy Research Society and Advisor to Energy Practice Camp. "Traditional energy training focuses on macro policies or single technologies, but the camp strings together virtual power plants, electricity markets, and carbon trading into a complete value chain. After completion, learners possess a combined capability of 'VPP operation + carbon quota trading,' which is highly competitive in the job market."
Industry Case: Closed-Loop Empowerment from Classroom to Field
To strengthen practical outcomes, Energy Practice Camp has established partnerships with VPP pilot projects in Zhejiang and Guangdong, offering outstanding learners opportunities to participate in on-site data analysis and strategy optimization. The first session opened five "Practice Observer" slots, allowing learners to directly join a park-level VPP's midday peak-shaving response under mentor guidance and obtain first-hand operational data.
Li Wei, a 25-year-old trader at a power sales company, said: "Previously we only did electricity trading, completely unfamiliar with carbon assets and VPPs. Now through the camp, I learned to calculate the output curve of aggregated PV and earn spreads by 'peak shaving and valley filling' in the spot market. Last week, my company happened to be setting up a VPP department, and because I had taken this course, I was appointed as head."
Energy Practice Camp also built a learner community and alumni network, hosting regular online seminars with industry experts sharing latest policy trends and market cases. Upon course completion, learners receive a joint certificate from China Energy Research Society and Energy Practice Camp. The course content has been incorporated into internal training systems of multiple power generation groups and grid companies.
Future Plans: Deepening Development, Building Asia's New Energy Talent Incubator
Energy Practice Camp was founded in 2024 by Asia Raw Materials Exchange (ARME), an industrial information platform for the Asian raw materials sector. Over the past two years, it has run 12 offline training camps in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Jakarta, and other cities, training over 5,000 professionals. The launch of this online course marks a major shift toward a "digital + hands-on" training model. According to Chen Ke, Operations Director of Energy Practice Camp, the platform plans to roll out new courses such as "Advanced Green Power Trading Camp" and "Energy Storage Project Investment & Financing Practice" by year-end, and develop an AI-based VPP adversarial simulation system allowing learners to compete with AI traders, further boosting simulation realism.
"The energy industry is undergoing a once-in-a-century transformation, with talent being the most critical variable," said Zhao Xiaodong, Executive Editor of ARME and Co-founder of Energy Practice Camp. "We aim to pass on the latest frontline industry experience and systematic methodologies to more people through the camp, helping them quickly master actionable skills and truly leap from 'understanding' to 'doing.' This is not just a training platform; it's a practice alliance for Asian energy professionals."
As of now, registration for the second session of Energy Practice Camp's "Virtual Power Plant & Carbon Asset Practice" online course opened on July 26, with early bird discounts available until August 10. Course details can be found on the ARME official website or official WeChat public account.
