Energy nonprofit the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) has signed up companies such as GM, Ford and Google as founding partners of the Virtual Power Plant Partnership (VP3).

VP3 is an initiative which looks to establish standards for scaling up the use of virtual power plants (VPPs) and ease loads on electricity grids in the US when supply is short. VPPs are portfolios made up of households and businesses that offer the latent potential of their electric vehicles (EVs), smart thermostats, appliances, batteries, solar arrays, and additional energy assets to support the grid.

VP3’s founding members include Ford, General Motors, Google Nest, OhmConnect, Olivine, SPAN, SunPower, Sunrun, SwitchDin, and Virtual Peaker. It is the latest institutional spinoff in the electric sector space previously incubated by RMI including the Clean Energy Buyers Association and the Energy Web Foundation.

Commenting on the launch, RMI CEO Jon Creyts said: “Virtual power plants are poised for explosive growth, and RMI is committed to being at the forefront of their success by launching VP3, Our analysis shows that VPPs can reduce peak power demand and improve grid resilience in a world of increasingly extreme climate events.

“A growing VPP market also means revenue opportunities for hardware, software, and energy-service companies in the buildings and automotive industries. For large energy users, VPPs can significantly reduce energy spend while providing new revenue streams.”

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