In order to cope with the continuous aggravation of environmental pollution and increasing shortage of fossil fuels,the proportion of renewable energy such as wind power and photovoltaic in power grid has been soaring.However,renewable energy power generation is intermittent and fluctuating,and its access points are scattered,which increases the difficulty of safe and stable operation of the system.Virtual power plants provide a new train of thought for the problem above.The concept and implementation architecture of a VPP are expounded.The key technologies for VPPs to participate in power system optimal operation scheduling are analyzed from three perspectives,integrated energy,electric vehicles and renewable energy.The technologies realize the interaction between electricity,heat,gas and other integrated energy, lower the operating cost of the system,alleviate the side effects of disordered charging and discharging of electric vehicles on the power grid,and suppressed the intermittent and fluctuating output of renewable energy as well.In addition,the VPP's market strategies based on game theory and other methods under market environment are analyzed.Sorting out the typical engineering applications of VPPs can provide reference for the construction and development of VPPs in China.