The invention provides a method for economic dispatch of virtual power plant based on distributed gradient algorithm, comprising the following steps: obtaining data information of adjacent energy sources through distributed scheduling, combining a gradient algorithm for iterations and updating, satisfying both equality constraint and inequality constraint, and performing power exchange with a main power grid. With the method, it is possible to reduce the erection and maintenance costs of communication lines. In addition to that, with small storage capacity and simple operation, optimization time can be considerably shortened and communication costs are reduced.