How ‘virtual power plants’ help reduce peak power demand in New England

On the hottest afternoons this summer, when residents across New England cranked their air conditioners, something noteworthy happened. Thousands of internet-connected thermostats, home solar panels and battery systems were called into action to help reduce the strain on the electric grid.

Welcome to the age of “virtual power plants,” or VPPs.

“I’m very excited about virtual power plants,” said Joe LaRusso, who manages the Clean Grid Initiative at the Acadia Center, a non-profit clean energy research and advocacy group. “There’s enormous potential for every house to behave as a grid asset.”

“On days when the grid is stressed, if each of our homes is serving as a grid asset — that is, we are turning stuff off in our homes or discharging batteries — we can, each of us, contribute to shaving the peak,” the Acadia Center’s LaRusso said. “And if the peak can be shaved across the region by thousands of megawatts, then we’re really talking about having a system that is much more nimble, and much more resilient and much more reliable.”

To read the full article from wbur, click here.