Was reading this article in utility-dive and the premise is that utilities would allow data centers to interconnect faster if they invest in off-site flexibility via VPPs. At a glance, this might sound reasonable: if the data center can provide enough flexibility such that their existence does not cause any issues at their POI, let them connect.
However, this sounds unlikely to occur due to
- Seems like datacenters would be better off with on-site flexible solutions (e.g. on-site solar+battery) to build flexible interconnection agreements
- Utilities are still figuring out how to make use of VPPs, and it seems unlikely in the near term they can manage them with enough certainty to offset particular loads with confidence
Happy to be proven wrong, but I'd want to see the operational playbook before buying into the VPP path for large load interconnection. Any additional pain points or arguments on the flip side?
Would utilities really let data centers use VPPs to speed up their interconnection process?
byu/iheartdatascience inenergy
Posted by iheartdatascience
2 Comments
What they’ll do is build on-site natural gas generation but pull power from the grid when they can because it’s cheaper than running their smaller gas units, and when the utility dispatches them down as a VPP they’ll turn on their gas units to keep the data center running.
“Enough certainty and confidence” are key factors here
Currently, utilities do not rely on VPPs for daily or “blue sky” operations. Rather, they’re used as one tool in the tool belt when contingency events are emergent. And they’re pretty blunt objects, often referred to as “the big red button” (all-or-nothing type deals).
IMO, utilities will need to major things to converge in order to more systematically integrate VPPs with grid ops:
– in the planning domain, a consensus framework for accrediting the capacity value of each individual DER and aggregations of those DER
– in the operations domain, enough operational technology (OT) investment to achieve the “right” level of visibility, schedulability and dispatchability of those DER aggregations
Without those two things, which each are pretty big advancements, I don’t think utilities will really deepen the use (and value) of VPPs