Virtual Power Plant Acceleration
Unlocking the potential of customer-sited resources to improve the energy system.
Tapping into the potential of millions of behind-the-meter, customer-sited devices —such as solar, battery storage, electric vehicles, and flexible loads— is essential to accelerate the shift away from an electric grid designed around large, power plants and toward a flexible, decentralized energy system powered by clean resources.
Virtual Power Plants (VPPs) bring together lots of smaller devices installed in homes, businesses, and community facilities to deliver grid-scale services. By utilizing customer resources, VPPs make the grid more reliable and efficient, reducing the need for expensive and polluting fossil fuel power plants, which lowers costs for all ratepayers. By compensating VPP participants for the grid services they provide, VPP programs can make clean energy technologies more affordable and accessible.
Who We Serve
Clean Energy Group collaborates with policymakers, regulators, utilities, and community advocates to evaluate, design, and implement equitable and inclusive VPP programs. Through analytical support, policy and technical guidance, coalition building, and advocacy, we have advanced some of the first and most innovative VPP programs in the country.
In partnership with the Clean Energy States Alliance and World Resources Institute, Clean Energy Group supports the VPP Acceleration Initiative, a national effort to help states, local governments, communities, and financial institutions deploy and scale VPPs.
Throughout this work, our goal is to support the communities that are most burdened by high energy costs and pollution and that have historically been excluded from energy decision-making processes. Clean Energy Group helps communities assess the benefits of VPPs, participate in and influence the design and implementation of VPP programs, and advocate for measures that remove barriers to equitable VPP participation.
Project Impact
Advocated and secured funding for one the first battery storage VPPs in the country – a rural, low-income energy storage pilot project in Vermont, which served as a template for Green Mountain Power’s nation-leading residential battery programs that deliver millions of dollars in annual ratepayer savings.
Provided independent analysis and advocacy to support the development and implementation of ConnectedSolutions in Massachusetts, the first state program to incorporate battery storage into the state’s energy efficiency plan, providing customers with performance payments in exchange for battery-provided grid services.
Advanced equitable VPP program design and implementation across the nation, including programs in California, Connecticut, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, and Vermont.
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Photo Credits, top to bottom: Solar Responders; Clean Energy Group; SimpliPhi Power.