An Introduction to Virtual Power Plants (VPPs)
The webinar explains how networks of solar, batteries, electric vehicles, smart appliances, and flexible commercial loads can be coordinated to operate like a power plant and support the wider electric grid.
What You’ll Learn:
How Virtual Power Plants work, how distributed energy resources can be coordinated to support the electric grid, and how VPPs can create value for both utilities and customers. The session will also cover the current U.S. VPP landscape and important policy-design considerations for states.
Why This Matters:
Electricity demand is increasing while the grid is becoming more distributed. VPPs offer a way to use resources that already exist in homes, businesses and communities—such as solar panels, batteries, EVs and smart appliances—to reduce peak demand, strengthen reliability, lower costs and support decarbonization rather than relying solely on new centralized power plants.
LEARN
Primary purpose: Understand how Virtual Power Plants work and how communities, utilities and governments can use them as part of a cleaner, more flexible electricity system.
There is also a strong BUILD pathway because CESA’s VPP Acceleration Initiative is specifically intended to help states, local governments, communities and financial institutions deploy and scale VPP programs.
What You’ll Leave With:
A practical understanding of what a VPP is, which technologies can participate, how VPPs support the grid, what benefits they can provide customers and communities, and what policy decisions are needed to scale them.
Best For:
Policymakers · Local Governments · Systems Designers · Technology Professionals · Social Entrepreneurs · Businesses · Investors / Funders · Community Leaders · Researchers · NGOs / Civil Society · Educators · Students · Journalists / Media
Especially valuable for utilities, clean-energy developers, grid planners, state energy agencies, community-energy organizations and organizations working with solar, batteries, EVs and demand flexibility.
Systems It Connects To:
Clean & Renewable Energy · Energy Storage · Electric Vehicles · Electric Grid · Distributed Energy Resources · Smarter Cities & Communities · Energy Resilience · Public Policy & Governance · Ethical Finance · Climate & Environment · Whole-System Design
Mobilized connection:
Virtual Power Plants demonstrate interdependence in action: thousands of individually small resources become significantly more powerful when they are connected and coordinated. Instead of asking, “Where should we build the next power plant?” VPPs introduce another possibility: “How can we intelligently connect the energy resources we already have?”