Americas Energy & Transition: The Peaker you can‘t see - Can VPPs become the MVP in the U.S.?

Research evidence excerpt

Americas Energy & Transition: The Peaker you can‘t see - Can VPPs become the MVP in the U.S.?

30 June 2026

Americas Energy & Transition

Americas Energy & Transition: The Peaker you can't see - Can

VPPs become the MVP in the U.S.?

Sunrun, Tesla, and Renew Home announced a framework agreement to deliver up Sunaina Ocalan

.+1 917 344 8503 to 16.8 gigawatts (GW) of flexible energy capacity to hyperscalers and utilities, at a

sunaina.ocalan@bernsteinsg.com time when the US grid is constrained, and there is a mad scramble for power. We like the

idea of VPPs, and while we don’t cover TSLA, or RUN, we think VPP adoption can create

Anshika Bajpai opportunities for ENPH and GEV.

+1 917 344 8306

anshika.bajpai@bernsteinsg.com

Virtual Power Plants (VPPs) are aggregated distributed energy resources acting as a

Raphael Lee flexible energy resource. Distributed energy resources (DERs) are distributed energy assets

+1 917 344 8355 such as rooftop solar, EV chargers, and smart thermostats.

raphael.lee@bernsteinsg.com

Electricity markets and the grid have stringent size and reliability requirements for

participants in order to maintain the smooth functioning of the system (and avoid issues like

blackouts). Since most DERs are relatively small, and comprise flexible resources such as

consumer demand response, grid participation is difficult without significant aggregation.

Size and reliability requirements prohibit many resources from being able to participate.

Another hindrance is the lack of standardization of access across markets. Currently,

access for DERs and VPPs is determined at the utility level in the U.S., which limits

participation to smaller markets rather than the broader regional markets served by ISOs

and RTOs.