Solar energy providers, along with the businesses like GM, Ford, and Google, declared on Tuesday that they would collaborate to create the guidelines for expanding the use of virtual power plants (VPPs), which reduce the strain on electricity grids when supplies are low.
The Virtual Power Plant Partnership (VP3) initiative, which also aims to influence the policy for boosting the use of the technologies, will be led by the energy transition organization RMI, according to the firms.
Thousands of dispersed energy sources, such as electric heaters and electric vehicles, are combined into virtual power plants.
With the consent of the customers, they employ cutting-edge software to respond to electricity shortages using strategies such as instructing electricity-using appliances like water heaters to reduce their consumption or switching the batteries in EVs and thousands of household batteries from charge to discharge mode.
In the United States, where the 2021 Inflation Reduction Act has expanded or added tax incentives for electric vehicles, water heaters, solar panels, and the other equipment whose output and consumption can be coordinated to reduce grid demand, VPPs are poised for explosive expansion.
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