Who will capture the market for virtual power plants? Competitive distributed energy companies or utilities? Or is there room for both?
Independent developers and advocacy groups fear that, if approved, the Minnesota program will create a model that other utilities nationwide may follow, undercutting competition in the distributed energy market.
Unlike programs under which the utility procures and owns distributed energy resources — such as Xcel’s Minnesota program — Xcel’s Colorado pilot avoids utility spending that would be passed through to electricity rates.
Jigar Shah explains why he supports the Xcel Minnesota virtual power plant program in an Energy Changemakers Podcast.
Last year clean energy spending remained flat, but grid investment was up 9.5%.
Solving climate issues with distributed energy makes even more sense following Trump’s rollback of the endangerment finding.
Virginia energy policy may piece together a lot of small and medium-sized initiatives in hopes they all add up to enough to meet the moment.
Ithaca, NY approved a plan to decarbonize independently from the grid using DERs, energy sharing, and dividend-paying ownership shares to community members.
New Jersey utilities must show how they will support DERs within 30 days to help meet “unprecedented” load growth from data centers.
Microgrid and DER developers remain bullish about their market and see projects growing in complexity.