A Harvard Law School group is urging Massachusetts regulators to test virtual power plants – possibly as part of microgrids – as the state moves to modernize its electric grid.
The school’s Emmett Environmental Law and Policy Clinic raised the idea of utilities demonstrating virtual power plants in comments filed last week before the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities. The DPU is reviewing grid modernization plans proposed last year by its investor-owned utilities.
Akin to microgrids, virtual power plants are a collection of intelligently controlled distributed energy resources that can act like a single power plant in relation to the grid and energy markets. They often serve a group of customers that are either identified by a utility or aggregated by a private entity.
Filed in: Clinical Spotlight, In the News
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