VPP 2.0 - Trends in Efficient Grid Integration

Don Dulchinos, Director, Market Facilitation, OpenADR Alliance

A next generation of Virtual Power Plants has emerged in 2025, embodying trends which will require more efficient integration with utility grids. Trends include: VPPs that integrate EV charging and other new resources; building management systems aggregated as VPPs; new use cases ranging from grid connected residential HVAC to AI-driven data centers; Community Choice Aggregators that are integrating VPP’s as they begin to act as demand response aggregators, and the emergence of solar panel manufacturers diversifying into VPP creation and management. The OpenADR Alliance (openadr.org) has a unique perspective on these trends as tighter integration calls for scalable information technology connections between utilities and a wider range of innovative distributed energy resources. 

The scope of resources being aggregated by VPPs continues to widen, beyond the earlier generation of rooftop solar resources. For example, smart energy ecosystem provider SolarEdge recently acquired OpenADR EV certified managed charging provider Wevo Energy, expanding the notion of what constitutes a Virtual Power Plant. This partnership adds EV’s to a pool of distributed energy resources alongside photovoltaics and the fast growing Battery Energy Storage Systems market. The BESS market as a standalone DER is rapidly developing alongside VPP innovation – U.K. provider GivEnergy recently certified its BESS with OpenADR, demonstrating the international market for VPP and DER innovation. And Fortress Power, another OpenADR member company, is exhibiting at RE+ with a set of battery energy storage systems, including a new “stackable” energy storage system which is approved for Virtual Power Plant programs.

The category of building management systems is represented by a recently certified solution from Edo. Edo focuses on seamless integration between grid-interactive efficient commercial buildings and utility operations, and notes that OpenADR certification “marks a significant step in Edo’s mission to achieve efficiency, reliability, and decarbonization with Virtual Power Plants.”

in the wake of the compensation rule changes for Community Choice Aggregators in California in 2023, a reorganization of the VPP provider market, is starting to take shape. OpenADR is a component of a VPP project funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Connected Communities program. Project lead Marin Clean Energy (MCE) will leverage its status as California's first Community Choice Aggregation (CCA), and its work as a load-serving entity (LSE), scheduling coordinator and registered Demand Response Provider (DRP), to demonstrate how CCAs can use Virtual Power Plants to create new opportunities and value for the buildings they serve, while enhancing grid health and reliability. The MCE Concept Paper includes the following detail:

• The team proposes to aggregate up to 12 MW of new and existing DERs at select commercial and industrial (C&I) sites to demonstrate innovative bi-directional demand response strategies using the Load Shift Resource (LSR) market-participation model that was recently added to the CAISO-FERC tariff. The LSR option allows dispatchable resources to bid load bi-directionally using two separate Resource IDs (load curtailment and load consumption). This bidirectionality will unlock substantial value creation for all stakeholders.
• Siemens supports MCE as an industry technology partner to deliver technical resources, distributed energy resources, and d) a detailed risk assessment and system analysis to ensure optimal and reliable outcomes for all stakeholders. Siemens supports MCE as an industry technology partner to deliver technical resources, distributed energy resources, and electrical and communications equipment to MCE’s OpenADR-enabled Distributed Energy Resource Management System (DERMS).

Many of the solar manufacturers exhibiting at RE+ have been adding storage to their product portfolios, eyeing the utility market.  Since the OpenADR Alliance first exhibited at RE+, we are now engaged in discussions with three of the top ten manufacturers in the U.S. market, and are providing insight on how they can engage directly with utilities as grid resources.

Within the last year, the OpenADR Alliance welcomed a new set of international renewable players as members of the Alliance:

• Greenphard Energy - Greenphard’s technology transforms various facilities and machines into virtual storage batteries. Buildings, facilities, machines, etc. become power resources.
• Renewable Japan is engaged in various businesses such as the development, operation and management of renewable energy power plants, such as solar power generation, wind power generation and hydropower generation.
• RE:Power provides an energy management system encompassing solar and wind power integrated with its own energy storage battery system. The company is active in the Texas power market.
•  Shirokuma Power integrates wholesale electricity purchases with non-fossil energy certificates to provide up to 100% green electricity to its customers.
• Solar Pilot provides a virtual power plant solution with a new type of photoelectric dispatch management and trading system,
• Hugemori Corporation offers a platform that will make it easier to adopt renewable energy (natural energy) as an alternative to non-renewable energy.

The OpenADR Alliance continues to grow, having reached the milestone of 200 member companies as of 2024. This growth was driven in part by adding Virtual Power Plant participants to its existing user base of demand response systems, smart thermostats, EV managed charging providers, building management systems and more.  And diversification continues, as our most recent additional market segments including HVAC providers and the recent rise of data center developers, spurred by the power needs of AI products and services.

The OpenADR Alliance will be represented at RE+ 2025 by Don Dulchinos, Director of Market Facilitation; please reach out to schedule a meet-up! [email protected]