On January 10, 2023, Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), a nonprofit dedicated to accelerating the global energy transformation, announced the formation of the Virtual Power Plant Partnership (VP3).[1] VP3 includes founding members Ford, General Motors, Google Nest, OhmConnect, Olivine, SPAN, SunPower, Sunrun, SwitchDin, and Virtual Peaker. Initial funding for the VP3 was provided by General Motors and Google Nest. VP3 aims to catalyze industry and transform policy to support scaling VPPs in ways that help advance affordable, reliable electric sector decarbonization by overcoming barriers to virtual power plant (VPP) market growth. VPPs coordinate distributed energy resources such as electric vehicles, batteries, and rooftop solar. Initial research by RMI indicates that virtual power plants could reduce peak demand in the U.S. by 60 GW as soon as 2030. VP3 will work to catalog, research, and communicate VPP benefits; develop industry-wide best practices, standards, and roadmaps; and inform and shape policy development.

[1] https://rmi.org/press-release/rmi-launches-virtual-power-plant-partnership-with-support-from-general-motors-google-nest/