As Energy Demand Rises, More States Turn to Virtual Power Plants

An executive order in Massachusetts and a regulatory commission action in Minnesota are among the big moves this year that highlight the growing role of virtual power plants in grid management. A virtual power plant, or VPP, is a network of resources that a central controller can call upon to send power to the grid or to reduce demand on it. Examples include batteries in homes and businesses as well as factories that can ramp down their power use when needed. With a few clicks, hundreds or thousands of points in a network can behave like a power plant, with compensation for the resource owners. It’s a cheaper and cleaner way to provide short-term electricity than the main alternatives, such as natural gas peaker plants. I spoke with Autumn Proudlove, managing director for policy and markets at the NC Clean Energy Technology Center at North Carolina State University, about her work tracking legislation and regulatory actions related to virtual power plants. ICN Weekly Saturdays Our #1 delivers the week’s climate and energy news – our original stories and top headlines from around the web. Get ICN Weekly Inside Clean Energy Thursdays Dan Gearino’s habit-forming weekly take on how to understand the energy transformation reshaping our world. Get Inside Clean Energy Today’s Climate Tuesdays A once-a-week digest of the most pressing climate-, written . Get Today’s Climate Don’t miss a beat. Get a daily email of our original, groundbreaking stories written -winning reporters. Get ICN Sunday Morning Go behind the scenes with executive editor Vernon Loeb and ICN reporters as they discuss one of the week’s top stories. Get ICN Sunday Morning Justice & Health A digest of stories on the inequalities that worsen the impacts of climate change on vulnerable communities. Proudlove highlighted actions in Massachusetts and Minnesota that stand out for their significance. Maura Healey issued an executive order on March 13 that aims to boost energy supply and affordability, including a plan to require the commonwealth to develop 3.5 gigawatts of demand-management resources by 2035, which can include virtual power plants. For comparison, the entire New England grid, covering six states, had a peak demand of 26.1 gigawatts in 2025. It’s also a lot compared to the country’s largest virtual power plant networks, such as the one in California, which generated a peak of about half a gigawatt last July. Healey’s order takes an expansive view of which resources will count.