Navigating Virtual Power Plants in California

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This summer, key stakeholders across the state of California teamed up for a first-of-its-kind, coordinated test of virtual power plant (or VPP) capabilities. Thousands of systems dispatched a whopping 535 megawatts and reduced net load during the evening peak in a successful demonstration of the potential impact that distributed energy resources can have.

On this episode of the podcast, Factor This host Paul Gerke welcomes Kendrick Li, who handles demand response for Pacific Gas and Electric Company, one of the three California utilities that teamed up for the massive VPP test. Their conversation starts at the 101 level, then gets deep into the weeds on how these systems work, how they might be deployed, and the roadblocks to larger customer adoption.

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