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From VPP Pilots to Enterprise Capability: How Utilities Can Build a Decision Framework for Scale
The next frontier for virtual power plants is not proving that distributed energy resources can respond to a dispatch signal. Many utilities have already done that. The harder question is how to institutionalize VPPs as a repeatable planning, operating, regulatory, and technology capability across diverse jurisdictions, customer programs, grid needs, and market structures.
This session will share how Exelon developed a fact-based VPP Strategic Framework to support multiple operating companies as they evaluate and design VPP programs. Rather than starting with a platform, aggregator, device class, or pilot concept, the framework starts with the utility’s grid problem: What system need is the utility or OpCo trying to solve, and what must be true for a VPP to address it reliably?
The framework translates those needs into clear VPP use cases, then guides integrated decisions across governance, operating model, DER eligibility, customer enrollment, vendor roles, telemetry, DERMS, market participation, cost recovery, cybersecurity, and measurement and verification. Its novel contribution is a practical decision architecture for IOUs: one that helps utilities determine what kind of VPP to build, why it matters, who must own each decision, and how enterprise guardrails can coexist with jurisdiction-specific flexibility.
Attendees will leave with a model for moving beyond fragmented pilots and disconnected technology decisions toward a scalable VPP playbook that is operable, measurable, secure, regulator-ready, and grounded in real grid value.
