Virtual power plant (VPP) projects using home batteries have been launched and extended in Texas, Vermont and California.

Mobile energy storage firm Nomad has won a US$9.5 million DOE grant to deploy its product in rural communities in Vermont, US.

While the likes of California, Massachusetts and New York make headlines as the leading US states for energy storage policy, initiatives from the ground up in New Hampshire, Georgia and Michigan have been announced already this year.

Tesla has announced the first programme to aggregate the capabilities of hundreds of its residential and commercial stationary storage systems in a partnership with Vermont utility Green Mountain Power.

A solar power plant owned by Vermont utility Green Mountain Power saved the utility’s quarter of a million customers US$200,000 in one hour by drastically reducing peak demand.