Abstract: For the past few years, virtual power plants in Australia have been booming, and the scale of the projects has been continuously expanding, which are considered to be an essential part of the energy structure of the Australian national electricity market in the future. The development experience of virtual power plants in Australia is referable for the construction of the new-type power system in China. In order to summarize and learn from the development experience of virtual power plants in Australia, this paper summarizes and analyzes the development status of virtual power plants in Australia from the aspects of policies, mechanism designs,technology development, and pilot demonstrations. Specifically, the operations of virtual power plants in the electricity spot markets and ancillary service markets are analyzed, and the background, system architecture, and operating revenues of virtual power plant demonstration projects are introduced. Also, considering the domestic situations in China, this paper gives development suggestions about mechanism designs, technology innovations, and pilot demonstrations for the construction of virtual power plants in China, which are expected to be referable for the development of virtual power plants in China.