Virtual Power Plants
A power plant with no smokestack — just software stitching together thousands of small energy assets into one coordinated grid resource.
The 30-second version
A Virtual Power Plant (VPP) is a cloud-based control system that aggregates thousands of distributed energy resources — home batteries, solar panels, EVs, smart thermostats, even commercial backup generators — and dispatches them as if they were a single large power plant. When the grid needs more power, the VPP discharges batteries and dims A/Cs across its fleet. When the grid has excess, it charges them. Owners get paid; utilities avoid building peaker plants.
How it works — click any node
Each layer plays a role. Tap a node to see what it does.
👆 Click any node above to see what it does.
Watch a VPP balance the grid
A simulated hot summer day. Grid demand spikes at 6 PM. Slide the time of day and see what the VPP does.
✓ Why utilities love them
- • Cheaper than building gas "peaker" plants ($/kW basis)
- • Deployable in months, not years
- • Located inside the distribution grid — no new transmission needed
- • Resilient: thousands of small nodes vs. one big point of failure
⚠ The hard parts
- • Customers can opt out — reliability isn't guaranteed
- • Need interoperability across many device vendors (OpenADR, IEEE 2030.5)
- • Market rules in many regions weren't designed for aggregated DERs (FERC Order 2222 in the US is fixing this)
- • Cybersecurity: thousands of internet-connected grid endpoints
Real VPPs in the wild
~75 MW of Powerwalls dispatched into the CAISO wholesale market.
Leases Powerwalls to customers for $55/mo and uses them for peak shaving — has saved ratepayers tens of millions.
Targeting 50,000 homes with solar + battery, ~250 MW aggregate.