en.Wedoany.com Reported - Colorado-based utility Platte River has entered into a formal agreement with software company EnergyHub to develop a virtual power plant (VPP) project. Platte River plans to achieve 19 megawatts of capacity from customer distributed energy resources by 2030, plus an additional 20 megawatts from four 5-megawatt battery systems deployed in owner communities, totaling 39 megawatts of dispatchable capacity. Jackson of Platte River stated that the final scale of the virtual power plant will depend on "the success and cost-effectiveness of our projects, which in turn rely on our suppliers, their equipment partners, and customer response."

Platte River supplies power to utilities serving the communities of Estes Park, Fort Collins, Longmont, and Loveland in Colorado. Although Platte River and EnergyHub signed a formal agreement earlier this month, the teams, along with owner community staff, have been collaborating on the initial VPP projects since last year.

The platform provided by EnergyHub allows utilities to integrate and manage distributed energy resources such as thermostats, electric vehicles, and batteries into a virtual power plant, thereby creating grid flexibility. The company will also provide an "edge" distributed energy resource management system, a software that tracks the energy demand of thermostats, electric vehicles, and batteries, enabling customer devices to respond to utility signals and connecting behind-the-meter distributed energy resources to the broader grid and energy markets.

Jackson stated that the virtual power plant is one of three forms of dispatchable capacity in the utility's current plan, which aims to decarbonize the power supply for owner communities by over 80% and meet the clean energy plan submitted to the state. Dispatchable capacity provided in the form of virtual power plants, battery storage, and aeroderivative turbines supports the reliability and financial sustainability of an increasingly non-carbon and non-dispatchable power supply (i.e., wind and solar).

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