California’s home batteries are replacing gas plants and saving hundreds of millions
The Brattle Group analyzed a gigawatt-hour virtual power plant test that may be the world’s largest as part of its review of California’s distributed peak-shaving program.
California cuts funding for nation’s largest virtual power plant
With California facing a $12 billion budget shortfall, the state’s lawmakers opted not only against a boost in funding for its flagship virtual power plant program as initially planned, but to not renew its funding all together.
Virtual power plant legislation lay in Gov. Newsom’s hands after sailing through California Assembly
California lawmakers passed two bills that aim to facilitate how the state and its utilities handle virtual power plants.
The importance of transparency in the distributed energy value stack
The distributed energy value stack is the collection of benefits and revenue streams that distributed energy resources (DERs) — such as solar, storage, demand response, and flexible generation — can deliver to customers, utilities, and the grid. As the market evolves, the value stack has become increasingly complex. For sellers of DERs and virtual power plants (VPPs), transparency into this value stack is no longer optional.
California’s virtual power plant program helped prevent blackouts and reliance on fossil fuels. Now its future is in jeopardy.
Gov. Newsom pushed off making a decision over the fate of a program to prevent California’s blackouts and lower costs, but now his time to make a decision is running out — and so is the program’s funding.
Ecotopia net-zero community blossoms on former youth prison site
With nature on the forefront and a ban on fossil fuels, a new Michigan mixed-income community is equipped with solar, EV charging, geothermal heat pumps and sustainability in every detail.
Dynamic pricing is superior to virtual power plants, says dynamic pricing pioneer
As California pursues dynamic pricing of electricity to help integrate renewable generation, industry pioneer Edward Cazalet says dynamic pricing can meet California’s demand flexibility needs better than virtual power plants can.
100,000 residential batteries in California tested as one distributed power plant
A statewide test showed how California’s residential batteries could perform routinely when the sun is going down and the grid is challenged.
MN8 Energy secures $575 million for nearly 1 GW of solar
The company closed its senior secured notes for a distributed and utility-scale solar and storage portfolio with Natixis Corporate & Investment Banking.
Virtual power plants in action: How rules and markets enable (or block) aggregation
The final, third part of this series explores how DERs and Virtual Power Plants are participating in today’s energy markets—including a close look at ISO/RTO-specific programs, qualification requirements, and market rules. We examine how these policies and procedures affect the real-world ability of aggregated DERs to operate as grid resources and the complexity stakeholders face when navigating these systems.
