What is a Virtual Power Plant, and why do many companies overpay for it?

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What is a Virtual Power Plant, and why do many companies overpay for it?

Introduction

Virtual Power Plant. You hear it more and more in conversations about flexibility, renewable energy, and grid balancing. Many technology companies position themselves as VPP providers and sell it as a premium service. But what does a Virtual Power Plant actually do? And what does that have to do with what Eddy Grid does?

What is a Virtual Power Plant?

A Virtual Power Plant (VPP) bundles multiple distributed energy assets and manages them as a single portfolio. Not one physical power plant, but a combination of solar parks, wind farms, battery systems, industrial consumers, charging infrastructure, and heating or cooling systems.

The core is aggregation and coordinated control. In practice that means: collecting data from multiple sites, forecasting generation and consumption, optimising output across assets, building one aggregated position in MW per quarter-hour, and trading that position on the energy market.

In short: a VPP turns many distributed assets into one controllable whole.

What do VPP providers typically offer?

Companies that position themselves as VPP operators usually provide:

• Asset aggregation: combining multiple sites into a single portfolio view.
• Portfolio optimisation: deciding how assets operate to increase revenue or reduce imbalance costs.
• Market access: trading flexibility on day-ahead, intraday, balancing, or capacity markets.
• Control: sending signals back to assets to adjust output.
• Reporting and settlement: measuring performance, reconciling imbalance, and allocating revenues.

Aggregation and optimisation are often offered as separate services, with separate price tags. For asset owners that means: integration fees, portfolio management fees, revenue sharing agreements, and additional costs for advanced optimisation.

What does Eddy Grid do?

Eddy Grid is not a standalone VPP provider. But when you look at what the platform actually does, the comparison is quickly made.

Aggregation Eddy Grid bundles multiple sites into one consolidated output in MW per quarter-hour. Structurally the same as a VPP. The difference is that it's not a separate product — it's just part of the algorithm.

Forecasting and optimisation Eddy Grid continuously forecasts generation and consumption and adjusts positions accordingly. Not an add-on, but a standard part of how the system works.

Market interaction As an energy supplier and BRP, Eddy Grid creates e-programmes and manages market positions directly. Aggregation therefore translates into real market positions and real balancing responsibility.

Control of flexible assets Eddy Grid controls a growing number of assets, including smart charging infrastructure and large energy-consuming systems. Coordinated control across distributed sites — that's exactly what a VPP does.

The real difference

It's not about capabilities. It's about how it's sold.

Traditional VPP providers make aggregation their core product, charge explicitly for it, and present the VPP as the primary value proposition.

At Eddy Grid, aggregation is part of the foundation of the platform. Portfolio optimisation isn't a feature: it's how the system works. The focus is on structural value through energy supply, balancing, and asset control.

What others sell as a premium service is simply built into our technology.

Why do many companies overpay?

When aggregation and optimisation are offered as separate services, costs add up quickly. Extra integration fees, giving up a share of your flexibility revenues, and limited insight into how the optimisation actually works.

If aggregation is just part of how you manage a distributed portfolio, it doesn't need to be priced as a luxury feature.

Why this is becoming more relevant

More renewable generation, more distributed assets, further electrification, greater need for flexibility. Portfolio-level control is becoming not a nice-to-have, but a requirement.

Whether you call it a VPP or not: the ability to aggregate, forecast, optimise, and control assets is increasingly what defines competitive advantage. The question isn't whether you use the term VPP. The question is whether the underlying capabilities are deeply enough embedded in your platform to scale.

Conclusion

A VPP aggregates distributed energy assets and manages them as a single portfolio on the energy market. Many providers sell this as a separate premium service.

Eddy Grid delivers the same functionality through its integrated platform, its role as energy supplier, its BRP activities, and its asset control capabilities.

What others sell as a VPP is simply standard in our technology. No separate product, no extra costs. The algorithm just does it.