From New England to the West, there's a trend picking up in electricity markets: aggregation of distributed resources.

Utilities have long been remotely switching off air conditioners to manage demand. But a range of emerging resources — solar paired with batteries, smart thermostats, intelligent water heaters, electric car chargers — are creating new kinds of virtual power plants.

People have been talking about the virtual power plant concept for years. It’s finally happening in a meaningful way — but rolling out very differently in regional markets around the U.S.

In this episode of The Interchange, Shayle Kann talks with Adam James about the nuances of DER aggregation. They’ll highlight specific projects around the country and talk about how the business models work.

Shayle is our co-host and managing director at Energy Impact Partners. Adam is the chief of staff at Energy Impact Partners. Adam previously worked at SolarCity/Tesla, and he’s also a former analyst at Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables (formerly GTM Research). 

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Support for this podcast comes from PG&E. Did you know that 20 percent of EV drivers in the U.S. are in PG&E’s service area in Northern California? PG&E is helping to electrify corporate fleet vehicles. Get in touch with PG&E’s EV specialists to find out how you can take your transportation fleet electric.

The Interchange is also brought to you by Uplight, the company you once knew as Tendril and Simple Energy.

The goal is still the same: to offer utility leaders a suite of engagement solutions that deliver customer experiences like Amazon and Netflix. Learn more about how Uplight is building an end-to-end product for utility customer engagement.

You can listen to Uplight’s five-part podcast series, called Illuminators, about what utilities can learn from case studies of business disruption. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, or anywhere else you get your podcasts.