For people like me it seems obvious that utilities should embrace the “virtual power plant” concept of using connected devices like thermostats and water heaters, along with batteries, to balance out the grid’s needs without building more power plants or transmission lines.
Easy-peasy! Or not, as this article from Canary Media makes clear.
The very detailed article looks at VPP tests by three utilities, including National Grid in Massachusetts, and how they cope with things like “decaying response” (people are fine turning stuff off the first hour but as time goes on they backtrack) and “snapback,” in which all these devices crank up at once as soon as the alarm is lifted.
The story is kind of an ad for EnergyHub, a software company that is working with these utilities on the problem, but even so it gives a realistic overview of VPPs.
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