The non-profit Energy Policy Design Institute (EPDI) has launched the Virtual Power Plant (VPP) Convergence Project, with an advisory group that includes Jigar Shah, former director of the US Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office.

The capacity of virtual power plants in North America has reached 37.5GW, a 13.7% year-on-year growth, according to Wood Mackenzie.

A 535MW fleet of aggregated household battery storage systems, including Tesla Powerwalls, effectively reduced net load on the California grid in a recent test event.  

Australia’s AGL Energy has acquired Tesla’s South Australia Virtual Power Plant with plans to expand the initiative.

Energy storage virtual power plant (VPP) provider Sonnen has launched its first VPP in Canada with utility Epcor, electric retail provider Solartility, the University of Alberta and construction company Landmark Homes.

Home battery systems company Haven Energy and California utility Clean Energy Alliance (CEA)  have partnered to provide homeowners in the state with battery energy storage systems (BESS) at no purchase or installation cost.

Utility and power generation firm RWE will trade 50MW/100MWh of BESS capacity in Germany from the virtual aggregation platform of startup Terralayr under a five-year agreement.

Power generation and trading company Vattenfall has signed a seven-year, 55MW multi-project BESS tolling deal in Germany with owner-operator and virtual aggregator Terralayr.

US residential solar installer Sunrun’s virtual power plant (VPP) in California has more than quadrupled in size from 2024 to support the state’s grid as summer weather begins.

Three virtual power plant (VPP) programmes have been announced in California and Colorado. Two of them will use Tesla’s Powerwall battery. Another is attempting to change customer habits to save energy and money.