Frontier Forum: How VPPs earn grid-scale trust [partner content]

Can a grid operator tell the difference between a virtual power plant and a traditional one? That’s the idea behind the Huels Test, a framework developed by EnergyHub to answer a simple but consequential question: when does a distributed fleet of customer devices become reliable enough to function like a power plant? Passing the test means more than just aggregating thermostats or batteries. It means delivering predictable, repeatable performance that utility planners and operators trust enough to rely on during system peaks. And it’s no longer theoretical. During a series of brutal winter cold snaps across the Southeast this year, Duke Energy leaned on tens of thousands of connected devices — smart thermostats, batteries, and water heaters — to help manage record-breaking winter peaks. Together, they formed a virtual power plant that the utility could dispatch when the grid was tight. In this Frontier Forum, Stephen Lacey talks with Stacy Phillips, Managing Director of Customer Load Management at Duke Energy, and Seth Frader-Thompson, president and co-founder of EnergyHub, about the spectrum of virtual power plants. They discuss how VPPs are evolving from traditional demand-response programs into operational grid resources, and what still needs to change before utilities treat them exactly like conventional power plants. This conversation was recorded live as part of Latitude Media’s Frontier Forum with EnergyHub. Watch the full video here. EnergyHub works with more than 160 utilities across North America to build and scale virtual power plants using its Edge DERMS platform. Read EnergyHub's white paper outlining the VPP maturity model and discover what VPPs can do for your grid.

Denne episoden er hentet fra en åpen RSS-feed og er ikke publisert av Podme. Den kan derfor inneholde annonser.

Episoder(275)

Anduril's vision for powering maritime defense

Dual-use technologies and the rise of defense tech are having a moment. But how does the defense sector approach innovations in energy that may be necessary to optimize its fleets? To help answer tha...

24 Sep 32min

AMA: Fuel cells, geopolitics, and the solar growth curve

As we head into the final quarter of this pivotal and dramatic year for the energy sector, Catalyst host Shayle Kann takes stock of 2026 so far – and considers what’s to come – in this AMA-style episo...

17 Sep 23min

Do data centers actually increase electricity prices? No...and yes

You don’t have to look far to see the vitriol and backlash ignited by the rapid expansion of hyperscaler data centers. While critics and activists tend to focus their ire on resource consumption and r...

10 Sep 42min

What comes after the data center backlash?

In their early days, data centers were largely welcomed by communities who saw their arrival as an economic boost. Today as concerns around noise levels, power prices, water use, and AI grow, they fac...

3 Sep 47min

The rise of metal fuels

Diesel generators remain ubiquitous because they offer an unusually powerful combination of low cost, high energy density, long-duration storage, and reliable off-grid power. But their pollution, nois...

27 Aug 40min

Can AI revolutionize grid operations?

Everyone loves to talk about the “broken grid.” But if you look inside a utility’s planning and operations functions, a different picture emerges: infrastructure that is remarkably reliable, built and...

20 Aug 39min

Is now the time for DERs to scale? [re-published]

A decade ago, DERs were hot. The hype was that things like batteries, smart devices, and other distributed energy technologies would offset the need for expanding traditional grid infrastructure. But...

13 Aug 42min

Critical Capital: Senator Tillis' case for "all-of-the-above" energy

This week, we’re presenting an episode of Critical Capital, a new podcast from Crux and Latitude Studios. Energy policy has become increasingly polarized just as the U.S. faces record electricity dem...

11 Aug 31min