The process of advancement and validation of smart grid technologies and systems calls for the availability of diverse expertise and resources. In response to this consideration, the virtual smart grid laboratory (VSGL) was developed as described in this study. At the core of the VSGL is a novel communication platform for seamlessly connecting geographically distributed laboratories with distinct competences. The platform has the dual purpose of opening access to resources of remote partner laboratory sites and offering the capability to emulate, analyse, and test smart grid communication networks involved in linking the distributed laboratory resources. The VSGL implementation is validated through a use case, in which the resources of R&D laboratories in three European countries are connected to form an aggregated system of distributed energy resources. The operation of the latter was coordinated through an energy management system based on model predictive control (MPC). The VSGL was found to be very suitable to meet the communication-specific requirements of such type of study. In addition, for this particular case the effectiveness of the MPC subject to diverse implementations of communication links was substantiated.