Industry pulse
News & updates
Curated headlines on Virtual Power Plants, capacity auctions, V2G pilots, and DERMS deals — refreshed from public sources.
DOE finalizes $300M VPP accelerator with second cohort of 14 utilities
The accelerator targets 80 GW of VPP capacity by 2030 and adds Xcel, Duke, and Southern Company subsidiaries to the cohort.
PJM clears record 7.4 GW of demand response in 2027/28 base auction
Capacity prices reached $310/MW-day across the RTO, driving renewed enrollment from C&I aggregators.
Sunrun and Ford pilot bidirectional F-150 Lightning fleet program in Texas
300 trucks will export to ERCOT during peak events under a 5-year aggregation contract.
Tesla Virtual Power Plant in California crosses 100,000 enrolled Powerwalls
PG&E ELRP dispatches in summer 2025 delivered an average of 95 MW per event with sub-second response.
FERC affirms Order 2222 compliance plan for MISO
Approval clears the path for DER aggregations of 100 kW+ to bid into MISO energy and ancillary services markets starting Q4 2026.
Enel X reaches 3 GW of C&I demand response capacity across North America
Growth driven by data center, industrial, and cold-storage portfolios in ERCOT and PJM.
California PUC expands ELRP through 2028, increases payment cap
Per-event payments rise to $2/kWh and program now includes load-shift DR alongside emergency dispatch.
LBNL: VPPs could replace 80–160 GW of peaker capacity by 2030
New report quantifies cost savings of $15-35B annually if utility procurement frameworks adapt.
AutoGrid acquired by Schneider Electric to scale DERMS platform
Schneider plans to integrate AutoGrid with EcoStruxure to serve 60+ utility deployments globally.
Google signs 200 MW VPP capacity agreement to back data centers
Multi-state agreement spans batteries and managed industrial load through three aggregator partners.
ConEdison expands residential battery VPP to 50 MW for summer 2026
Program adds heat pump pre-cooling and EV managed charging alongside existing Powerwall, sonnen, and Enphase fleet.
ERCOT issues RFI on aggregated DER participation in Real-Time Co-optimization
Aggregators have until February to comment on integration of DER aggregations into the new market design.
Editorial selection — VPPdirectory aggregates publicly available announcements and is not affiliated with the sources cited.