Supplemental Report on Utility VPPs

This supplemental report by RMI addresses the barriers to scaling Virtual Power Plants (VPPs) in the United States, specifically focusing on the challenges posed by inconsistent metering and telemetry requirements for distributed energy resources (DERs).

• Distributed energy resources (DERs) are projected to increase by more than 170 GW over the coming five years, with VPPs serving as affordable, low-cost, and rapidly deployable tools to integrate these resources into the grid to manage load growth.
• The expansion of VPPs across the United States is hindered by several metering and telemetry obstacles, including inconsistent regional requirements, strict rules regarding pre-approved hardware, and limited data availability that restricts VPP participation.
• While metering and telemetry are less frequently cited as barriers for utility VPPs—where the utility acts as the purchaser of services—standardization and evolution in these areas are still necessary to enable additional grid services and improve reliability and affordability.

APA

RMI (2025). Supplemental Report on Utility VPPs. https://rmi.org/resources/virtual-power-plant-metering-and-telemetry-2/

Chicago

RMI. Supplemental Report on Utility VPPs. 2025. https://rmi.org/resources/virtual-power-plant-metering-and-telemetry-2/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=RMI |title=Supplemental Report on Utility VPPs |date=17 October 2025 |url=https://rmi.org/resources/virtual-power-plant-metering-and-telemetry-2/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{rmi2025supplemental, author = {{RMI}}, title = {{Supplemental Report on Utility VPPs}}, institution = {RMI}, year = {2025}, month = oct, url = {https://rmi.org/resources/virtual-power-plant-metering-and-telemetry-2/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }