{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,28]],"date-time":"2026-03-28T15:58:25Z","timestamp":1774713505604,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":49,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,3,12]],"date-time":"2025-03-12T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1741737600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"European Union through the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR)"},{"name":"NextGenerationEU"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Smart Cities"],"abstract":"<jats:p>This work focuses on optimizing the scheduling of virtual power plants (VPPs)\u2014as implemented in the Portuguese national project New Generation Storage (NGS)\u2014to maximize social welfare and enhance energy trading efficiency within modern energy grids. By integrating distributed energy resources (DERs), including renewable energy sources and energy storage systems, VPPs represent a pivotal element of sustainable urban energy systems. The scheduling problem is formulated as a Mixed-Integer Linear Programming (MILP) task and addressed by using a parallelized simulated annealing (SA) algorithm implemented on high-performance computing (HPC) infrastructure. This parallelization accelerates solution space exploration, enabling the system to efficiently manage the complexity of larger DER networks and more sophisticated scheduling scenarios. The approach demonstrates its capability to align with the objectives of smart cities by ensuring adaptive and efficient energy distribution, integrating dynamic pricing mechanisms, and extending the operational lifespan of critical energy assets such as batteries. Rigorous simulations highlight the method\u2019s ability to reduce optimization time, maintain solution quality, and scale efficiently, facilitating real-time decision making in energy markets. Moreover, the optimized coordination of DERs supports grid stability, enhances market responsiveness, and contributes to developing resilient, low-carbon urban environments. This study underscores the transformative role of computational infrastructure in addressing the challenges of modern energy systems, showcasing how advanced algorithms and HPC can enable scalable, adaptive, and sustainable energy optimization in smart cities. The findings demonstrate a pathway to achieving socially and environmentally responsible energy systems that align with the priorities of urban resilience and sustainable development.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/smartcities8020047","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,3,12]],"date-time":"2025-03-12T04:55:44Z","timestamp":1741755344000},"page":"47","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":10,"title":["Optimizing Virtual Power Plants with Parallel Simulated Annealing on High-Performance Computing"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"8","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5581-1279","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ali","family":"Abbasi","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"DTx\u2014Digital Transformation CoLAB, University of Minho, 4800-058 Guimar\u00e3es, Portugal"},{"name":"Centro de Algoritmi, Universidade do Minho, Campus of Gualar, 4704-553 Braga, Portugal"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8387-391X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Filipe","family":"Alves","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"DTx\u2014Digital Transformation CoLAB, University of Minho, 4800-058 Guimar\u00e3es, Portugal"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0002-3421-8932","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Rui A.","family":"Ribeiro","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"DTx\u2014Digital Transformation CoLAB, University of Minho, 4800-058 Guimar\u00e3es, Portugal"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1512-1126","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jo\u00e3o L.","family":"Sobral","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Centro de Algoritmi, Universidade do Minho, Campus of Gualar, 4704-553 Braga, Portugal"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7986-3754","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ricardo","family":"Rodrigues","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"DTx\u2014Digital Transformation CoLAB, University of Minho, 4800-058 Guimar\u00e3es, Portugal"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,3,12]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Podder, A.K., Islam, S., Kumar, N.M., Chand, A.A., Rao, P.N., Prasad, K.A., Logeswaran, T., and Mamun, K.A. 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