Reimagining the grid for the 21st century with virtual power plants
Why should we pay for new utility power plants when VPPs can meet our grid’s needs at far less cost?
Our electricity grid is a vast balancing act between supply and demand, with a tightly-guarded and centralized structure created in the early 20th century to manage electricity production, transmission and delivery. This system is dominant not through persistent innovation or transparency, but by maintaining legislated monopoly control, with guaranteed revenue from ratepayers, and perpetuating the vision that excess generation capacity must be built in order for utilities to fund capital investments.
We are using electricity in ever more diverse and unpredictable ways, and our utility monopoly model is increasingly expensive and unreliable as it attempts to adapt to the new realities of electricity demand. Instead of another 100 years of our current system, what if the utilities of the 21st century were more like internet service providers? The utility network is the system’s foundation, like the internet — a platform that creates an ecosystem for innovation. Such a reimagining would create significant opportunities, far exceeding any logistical challenges.
