New York City skyline (courtesy: Ben O'Bro/Unsplash)

CPower to bid virtual power plants into NYISO’s DER Participation Model

CPower Energy, a national distributed energy resource (DER) monetization and virtual power plant (VPP) provider, announced today that it is the first registered aggregator for the United States’ first program integrating aggregations of DERs into wholesale markets, the DER and Aggregation Participation Model program offered by the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO).

“We applaud NYISO for its leadership in establishing the nation’s first program for integrating VPPs into wholesale markets,” said Michael Smith, CEO of CPower. “This program is an important step forward for utilizing the full spectrum of value DERs can provide and will improve grid reliability as renewable integration grows. We’re honored to be one of few aggregators approved to bid into the program and look forward to working with NYISO stakeholders over the next few years to develop models to expand the reach of the program to smaller DERs and reduce remaining barriers to participation by larger customers.”

This landmark program allows DERs to be aggregated as VPPs to provide both wholesale services to the grid operator and retail services to utilities and load servers at the same time. This allows grid operators to unlock the full benefits of VPPs for the resiliency and reliability of the grid while creating new revenue opportunities for commercial and industrial energy users and DER owners and developers, claims CPower in its release.

The NYISO’s new market rules allow aggregations of DER resources over 10 kilowatts, which will provide reliability benefits and other important services to the electric grid as New York continues its shift to more renewable energy resources. The NYISO forecasts distributed generation in the state to roughly double over the next three decades as New York works toward having 70% of its electricity generated by renewable resources by 2030 and a 100% clean power grid by 2040.

“FERC’s acceptance of our landmark model is a huge win for grid reliability and energy consumers in New York,” said Rich Dewey, President and CEO of the New York Independent System Operator. “Bringing small-scale resources into our wholesale markets will add much-needed capacity to the grid and bring New York closer to reaching its ambitious climate goals. We’re excited for the future and proud to be a vanguard of DER aggregation.”

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved the program on the same day that New York’s Public Service Commission formally instituted a major, multi-year Grid of the Future proceeding dedicated to vastly increasing grid flexibility in the Empire State. The Grid of the Future proceeding will dovetail with (and help build upon) the NYISO program by developing a grid flexibility study and plan outlining the current and future potential capabilities of flexible DERs across New York’s electric grid. The study will also identify near-term actions likely to increase the deployment and use of flexible resources and the improved integration of flexible resources into grid planning and grid operations. CPower will be participating in the Grid of the Future process to further unlock additional opportunities for its customers.

CPower Energy has more than 6.7 GW of capacity at more than 27,000 sites. CPower is based in Baltimore, Maryland, and is owned by LS Power, a development, investment, and operating company.

Earlier this month, CPower and EnergyHub, a grid-edge flexibility and VPP provider to utilities and markets, launched a new residential VPP partnership available to 1.2 million Ameren Illinois customers in more than 1,200 communities across Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO), the U.S. Midwestern grid operator. Ameren and other utilities in the Midwest are expanding VPP programs to help MISO manage increasing electricity demand by utilizing a growing base of distributed energy resources.

The NYISO encourages interested parties to learn more about its new DER aggregation and participation model. You can view the FERC Order that inspired it here.