State legislators want utilities to launch VPPs and ease the grid squeeze. (Utility Dive)
This month, Virginia’s senate passed a bill requiring Appalachian Power, which serves +500K VA customers, to develop a VPP program. Similar bills have cropped up in Michigan and New York, but with a twist: These VPPs would be off-limits to utility-owned DERs, and require reasonable access to third-party aggregators.
Meanwhile, Pennsylvania lawmakers are milling over their own VPP proposal. Bills in Oregon and New Mexico fizzled out earlier this year, but advocates hope to revive them.
Another capacity boost: Still, there’s other action unfolding out west, where Puget Sound Energy has launched Washington state’s first bidirectional EV charging pilot. It’s testing Ford and Kia vehicles as demand response and peak-shaving assets through Q1 2027. The utility is also building 100 MW of VPP capacity, and it’s buying power from a 200-MW/800-MWh battery facility expected online next year.