Supplemental Report on Utility VPPs

The report identifies metering and telemetry as a primary barrier to scaling virtual power plants (VPPs) in the United States, citing inconsistent regional requirements and hardware restrictions. It evaluates five metering approaches based on affordability, reliability, and fairness to provide actionable recommendations for grid operators and policymakers. Additionally, it references a companion report specifically addressing utility VPPs where the utility acts as the service purchaser.

• Distributed energy resources (DERs) are projected to increase by more than 170 GW within the next five years, with VPPs serving as a low-cost method to integrate these resources to manage load growth.
• The expansion of VPPs across the United States is hindered by inconsistent or burdensome metering and telemetry requirements, restrictions on hardware, and limited data availability.
• While metering and telemetry are less frequently cited as barriers in utility VPPs (where the utility is the purchaser) compared to wholesale market VPPs, standardization is still necessary to enable additional grid services.

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} }