The US Department of Energy (DoE) believes the nation can save as much as $10 billion in annual grid costs by 2030, simply by tripling the existing deployment of virtual power plants (VPPs). As the US ramps up sustainability processes in line with environmental targets VPPs are becoming an increasingly important factor in their success. President Joe Biden also set a goal to achieve a carbon-free electric grid by 2035 (currently 22.6% carbon-free) which further drives the interest in VPPs and other grid balancing technologies. VPPs are aggregations of distributed energy resources (DERs), which are various forms of equipment in, and around, a building that can provide electricity demand flexibility, power generation, storage, or other energy services, typically at a small scale. By utilizing the various energy functions of such equipment, VPPs can balance electrical loads to support owner and grid goals, such as reducing grid consumption in peak load and cost times or selling […]