What is a virtual power plant?
A plain answer for homeowners, with sources, and what it means for the battery in your garage.
The short answer
The U.S. Department of Energy describes virtual power plants as "aggregations of distributed energy resources (DERs) such as smart appliances, rooftop solar with batteries, EVs and chargers, and commercial and industrial loads that can balance electricity demand and supply and provide grid services like a traditional power plant." [1]
In plain words: thousands of small energy devices in homes and businesses, coordinated by software, working together like one power plant. There is no single building. The "plant" is spread across a whole region.
How a home battery fits in
A home battery stores energy. When the grid is under strain, a program can ask many batteries at once to send some of their stored energy to the grid, or to stop drawing power from it. One battery is small. Thousands of them together add up to power plant scale.
This is growing fast. The Department of Energy reports that virtual power plants have grown to 33 GW across North America, in its 2025 update. [1]
Virtual power plants in Texas
ERCOT runs the electric grid for most of Texas. On October 18, 2022, at the direction of the Public Utility Commission of Texas, the ERCOT Board set up a pilot that lets aggregations of home and business energy devices take part in the Texas wholesale power market. It is called the ADER pilot, short for Aggregate Distributed Energy Resource. [2]
The pilot is now in Phase 3.3, approved by the ERCOT Board in June 2026, and allows up to 500 MW of these aggregated resources system wide. ERCOT's tracker showed about 249 MW registered for energy as of June 1, 2026. [2]
Programs differ in how they use the batteries they work with. Your advisor explains exactly how the program you join uses yours.
How the VirtuGrid program uses your battery
While the grid is up, the energy stored in your battery helps support the grid market. That grid work is how the program covers the battery and its installation. A reserve is kept for your backup.
When the grid goes down, your home switches to the energy reserved in your battery automatically. How long it lasts depends on the battery's charge and how much power your home uses.
VirtuGrid is an independent sales partner of SOLRITE. Licensed installers do the installation, and the program owns, monitors and maintains the equipment. Rates and terms are set in your agreement, which you review before you sign. See the details for Texas or Illinois.
Questions people ask
It does the job of one, but there is no single building. Software coordinates many home and business devices, such as batteries, so they can respond to the grid together.
A reserve is kept for your backup, and when the grid drops, your home switches to the battery automatically. Backup runtime depends on your usage and the battery's charge.
Yes. ERCOT has run a pilot for aggregated home and business energy devices since October 2022, and it now allows up to 500 MW system wide.
Texas and Illinois today. In California, you can book an appointment to find out what is available for your home. Other states have a waitlist.
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