Who Needs Natural Gas Power Plants When Grid Solutions, VPPs, And DERs Are Here?

New gas power plants are barely getting built, partly because of a long backlog for the turbines they need. Meanwhile, batteries, wind, and solar keep expanding, along with new ways of tying home and business energy systems into the grid. A New York battery startup called Viridi is working with a federal energy lab in Tennessee to test software that coordinates many small batteries at once, a setup known as distributed energy resources, or DERs. Early results are promising, though full analysis will take months. Viridi is also installing its battery systems at 100 commercial sites for an energy-management company called Budderfly.

On the demand side, General Motors is installing a new power-control system at a Michigan factory that is meant to cut energy waste and improve grid reliability in the surrounding area, though this particular upgrade is at a factory, not a home upgrade you can access directly.

The most homeowner-relevant piece involves electric vehicles. In Massachusetts, utilities Eversource and National Grid are teaming up with EnergyHub, Sunrun, and Mobility House to expand a vehicle-to-grid, or V2G, program. Owners of V2G-capable EVs can enroll through an existing system called ConnectedSolutions, letting their car's battery help balance the grid, often in exchange for a financial incentive. This program is specific to Massachusetts for now, so if you drive an EV, it is worth checking whether your own state offers something similar, since these grid-balancing programs vary widely by location.