Industry-leading Virtual Power Plant (VPP) and Distributed Energy Resource Management Solution (DERMS) provider AutoGrid announced that it has joined Rocky Mountain Institute’s (RMI) Virtual Power Plant Partnership (VP3) initiative to accelerate the scaling of virtual power plants in order to enable a cleaner, more reliable, and cost-effective grid.
With more than 7GW of flexible capacity and an annual average of 1,800 dispatch events, AutoGrid joins other industry champions including Ford, General Motors, and Google Nest to advance this critical technology in accelerating the energy transition.
“VP3’s objectives are closely aligned with AutoGrid’s mission to leverage AI and technological innovation to combat the climate crisis,” said AutoGrid CEO Ruben Llanes. “As a company that has been at the forefront of VPP development, we are excited to collaborate with RMI and other industry leaders to establish a common set of standards and performance metrics for VPPs that will support customers around the world in adopting VPPs and in reaching their decarbonization goals.”
Also Read: Energy Efficiency Leader Scott Avirett Joins Budderfly as Chief Operating Officer
RMI is a devoted advocate for decarbonizing buildings, electricity, heavy industry, and mobility both domestically and around the world through market-driven and business-led solutions. Launched in January, the VP3 initiative works to overcome barriers to VPP market growth by catalyzing the industry and transforming policy to support scaling VPPs in ways that help advance affordable, reliable electric sector decarbonization. Virtual power plants are portfolios comprised of hundreds or thousands of households and businesses that offer the latent potential of their electric vehicles (EVs), smart thermostats, appliances, batteries, solar arrays, and utility-scale energy assets to support the grid.
An early and outspoken voice for enabling utilities to adopt VPPs to eliminate inefficient, expensive, heavy-polluting peaker power plants, AutoGrid has a track record of standing up for environmental justice. Acquired by Schneider Electric in 2022, AutoGrid also brings Schneider’s global prosumer to grid strategy to VP3.
“VPPs can unlock the full potential of DERs to bring clean energy onto the grid and provide key reliability services in a world of increasingly extreme climate events,” said Mark Dyson, Managing Director of RMI’s Carbon-Free Electricity Program. “VP3 looks forward to working together with AutoGrid and other industry leaders to scale the market for VPPs.”
SOURCE: PR Newswire