The paper presents an overview on the modeling and simulation activities of the virtual institute for central
receiver power plants (vICERP). Within a three years launch period models and tools for dynamic simulation
of central receiver power plants have been developed by the five research institutes involved. The models are
based on the Modelica modeling language. Today, models for the heliostat field, the receiver, the air cycle,
the thermal storage, and the water-steam cycle are available within the consortium. As a first application, the
Solar Tower Jülich technology was used as a reference. Models are validated with real operational data from
the Solar Tower Jülich
