Vermont scales household batteries into utility peak-demand capacity

A programme launched as a pilot in 2017 has grown into a roughly 110 MW virtual power plant. Lifting an enrolment cap in 2023 enabled wider participation, expanding the utility’s ability to coordinate household batteries for peak-demand support.

Utilities can use the same batteries to support household outage resilience and reduce reliance on generation maintained for demand spikes. Vermont’s experience makes customer participation, reserve management and market integration practical considerations for grid-capacity planning—not just battery installation.

Green Mountain Power is using household batteries as both outage protection and a shared grid resource. The Business Standard, citing BBC reporting, says more than 5,500 Vermont participants have home battery systems through the utility’s programme, whose virtual power plant provides about 110 MW. Customers can lease two batteries for $55 a month over 10 years, allowing the utility to draw on stored electricity while retaining reserves for outages. Expansion accelerated after regulators lifted an enrolment cap in 2023, with more than 2,500 customers joining since then. GMP says the network saved customers $11 million last year and has helped reduce reliance on fossil-fuel peaking plants, although four remain available. The operational shift is from treating residential backup systems as isolated equipment to coordinating them as grid capacity. Further growth still faces customer-enrolment costs, wholesale-market integration challenges and utility incentives that can favour conventional infrastructure investment.

Evidence supplied by The Business Standard.