WASHINGTON: GM, Ford, Google, and solar energy providers announced that they would collaborate to create guidelines for expanding the use of virtual power plants (VPPs), technologies that reduce the strain on electricity grids when supply is low.
The Virtual Power Plant Partnership (VP3) initiative, which also aims to influence policy for boosting the use of the technologies, will be led by energy transition organisation RMI, according to the firms.
Thousands of decentralised energy sources, including electric automobiles and thermostat-controlled heaters, 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 other equipment whose output and consumption can be coordinated to reduce grid demand, VPPs are poised for explosive expansion.
