VPP (Virtual Power Plant)

The Electric Utility Act defines the integrated power plant business as 'a business using a system that connects and controls energy resources with information, communications and automatic control technology to operate them like a single power plant'. Eligible resources include renewable and hydrogen generation, community-energy and district-energy generation, energy storage and demand response resources.

Integrated power plant operators can trade in the power market under the market rules. A similar scheme is the small-scale power brokerage business, which pools power from small renewable plants, energy storage and electric vehicles and trades it in the power market; the rules call such pooled resources 'aggregated power resources'.

News-reading tip: check whether the VPP in a story is legally an integrated power plant business or a small-scale power brokerage business. The two differ in registration type and in which resources they can pool.