  The application of the energy-efficient thermal and energy management
mechanism in Geothermal Heat Pumps (GHPs) is indispensable to reduce the
overall energy consumption and carbon emission across the building sector.
Besides, in the Virtual Power Plant (VPP) system, the demand response of
clustered GHP systems can improve the operating flexibility of the power grid.
This paper presents an integration and operation framework of GHPs in the
distribution network, applying a layered communication and optimization method
to coordinate multiple clustered GHPs in a community. In the proposed
hierarchical operation scheme, the operator of regional GHPs collects the
thermal zone information and the disturbance prediction of buildings in a short
time granularity, predicts the energy demand, and transmits the information to
an aggregator. Using a novel linearized optimal power flow model, the
aggregator coordinates and aggregates load resources of GHP systems in the
distribution network. In this way, GHP systems with thermal and energy
management mechanisms can be applied to achieve the demand response in the VPP
and offer more energy flexibility to the community.
