What’s a “virtual power plant?”
I looked into it because I saw this.
Xcel Energy is proposing a new approach to powering the grid in Minnesota.
The utility recently told state regulators it wants to build a network of solar-powered energy storage hubs, located strategically on its grid and linked with technology so they can be operated in concert with each other.
The result would be what’s known as a “virtual power plant.”
…One area of disagreement between the utility and some clean energy advocates is who should own the facilities. Unlike in Colorado, Xcel is proposing to own the Minnesota solar and storage hubs itself, collecting money to build them — plus a rate of return — from ratepayers.
That’s not the best deal for customers, and it prevents local communities and developers from being able to share the financial benefits of distributed energy, said (John) Farrell of the Energy Democracy Initiative.
(Canary Media)
If you want more detail on VPP’s, this was written by an industry person but does provide a lot of specifics in a mostly objective way.
Putting, and keeping, utilities (and a lot of other things) into the pathologically grasping hands of greedheads has not been a good idea. (That’s from 2019, but I’ve seen no indication anywhere in the meantime of significant change for the better when it comes to privatized utilities. Not at all.) And note Xcel’s recent behavior toward community solar.
That said, I’m not prepared to just label this a greenwashing publicity stunt. Not entirely, anyway. At least the inevitability of renewables is being acknowledged. Getting away from privatized utilities would be great, but the political climates, at both state and federal levels, are unlikely to be such as to foment that on a large scale any time soon. Strict regulation of profiteering business practices by the likes of Xcel, though, would certainly be a big positive. Here in Minnesota, anyway, where we do potentially have the political wherewithal to do that, during the next lege session.
A big concern of mine right now is that the closure of the coal-fired power plant in Becker, MN, will be delayed, “indefinitely,” due to the outlandish electricity needs of data centers. Hopefully I’m being too pessimistic.
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