To guide energy industry policy and develop market scaling for the technology involved, several technology companies formed the Virtual Power Plant Partnership, or VP3.
Google Nest and General Motors are providing initial funds for the effort, and founding members include Ford, OhmConnect, Olivine, SPAN, SunPower, Sunrun, SwitchDin and Virtual Peaker, according to a release by RMI, the Rocky Mountain Institute.
VP3 is an initiative based at RMI that works to catalyze industry and transform policy to support scaling VPPs in ways that help advance affordable, reliable electric sector decarbonization by overcoming barriers to VPP market growth.
T&D World ran an article about the development of virtual power plant technology that you can read here.
Virtual power plants are portfolios made up of of hundreds or thousands of households and businesses that offer the latent potential of their electric vehicles (EVs), smart thermostats, appliances, batteries, solar arrays and other distributed energy assets to support the grid.
VP3 follows in the path of successful institutional spinoffs in the electric sector space previously incubated by RMI including the Clean Energy Buyers Association and the Energy Web Foundation.
With the guidance and support of its members, VP3 is working toward a future where businesses, households, and communities are empowered through VPPs which can help to support cost-effective energy, emissions reductions, and a more resilient electricity grid. To achieve this, VP3 will work to:
- Catalog, research, and communicate VPP benefits
- Develop industry-wide best practices, standards, and roadmaps
- Inform and shape policy development
In a VPP, these decentralized distributed energy resources (DERs) are aggregated into a portfolio. Customers themselves or their authorized energy management companies — with customer permission and the help of advanced software — can adjust charging, discharging, output, and demand from DERs in response to signals from markets and grid operators. In this way, VPPs can play an important role in seamlessly and efficiently matching energy supply and demand.
