Challenges Virtual Power Plants Face. Are they Fixable? Insights from DOE’s Jen Downing

The Department of Energy released a pivotal document in September on virtual power plants (VPPs), a “liftoff” report designed to help commercialize the technology. Highly referenced within the emerging industry, the 74-page report found that deploying 80-160 GW of VPPs by 2030 could avert as much as $10 billion in annual grid costs.

After six months and many conversations with the industry, how does the lead author, Jen Downing, think now about the report and its findings? What would she change? And what should the distributed energy community watch for next from the DOE Loan Programs Office, where Downing serves as senior advisor?

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Downing. Below is an edited version of our conversation. The full interview is available in the Energy Changemakers Community.

Wood: If you were to rewrite the VPP liftoff report today, would you modify, delete or add anything?

Downing: I’m already thinking about novel analyses that we could add or what an update or addendum could look like. Some of the ideas that we’ve had would be a state-by-state analysis of market attractiveness based on utility regulations or wholesale market rules or a deeper dive into the hardware and software configuration, looking under the hood of virtual power plants and exactly how the technology works.?

The other thing I think would be interesting would be a comparison across Japan, Germany, the UK, and maybe Australia —?what their markets look like and what the US could learn from them.?

I can’t think of anything that I would delete, to be honest. I think it all has been pretty well received.?

Wood: What are the one or two concerns you hear repeatedly from VPP providers? Are they fixable?

One big concern or obstacle that I hear about from VPP providers is the lack of long-term certainty...Continue reading on Energy Changemakers.