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# A virtual power plant built on home batteries is now Vermont's largest power source
- URL: https://www.metatalks.ai/a-virtual-power-plant-built-on-home-batteries-is-now-vermonts-largest-power-source/
- Published: 2026-10-12T10:29:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-12T10:28:59.000Z
- Author: Al
- Tags: News, #newswire

**Green Mountain Power's network, anchored by batteries in the homes of more than 5,500 Vermonters, can deliver about 110MW at peak. The utility says it saved customers $11m last year.**

Vermont's largest power source is now [a virtual power plant](https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20260928-a-virtual-power-plant-hidden-in-vermont-homes-is-keeping-the-lights-on-during-storms?ref=metatalks.ai): a network run by Green Mountain Power (GMP) whose peak output of about 110MW roughly matches a small-to-mid-sized gas-fired plant.

The network also includes electric-vehicle batteries, businesses that cut their power use when asked and a handful of utility-scale batteries, all tied to the batteries GMP has installed in the homes of more than 5,500 Vermonters. About half the participating homes have solar panels as well, GMP says; the rest rely on batteries alone.

The 110MW is a peak figure, not steady output, and the network itself generates no electricity. Software coordinates and conserves stored energy so that existing supply stretches further when the grid is under most strain.

As the BBC reported, GMP says the network has in effect replaced the oil, diesel and gas peaker plants it once relied on for peak demand, and those plants are being decommissioned as they reach end of life. Four still run on very rare occasions when the New England grid operator calls on them, and the company hopes to shut them soon. GMP also says the network saved customers $11m last year.

Across the US, virtual power plants remain small. Wood Mackenzie, in internal analysis, puts their capacity at over 40GW, against about 600GW from natural gas and 200GW from coal. A 2025 Department of Energy report said they could make 160GW available by 2030, around 20% of expected US peak demand.

Jen Downing, a former US Department of Energy official who led its 2023 report on virtual power plants, told the BBC the main obstacle is a backwards incentive: many utilities earn more by building infrastructure than by using demand flexibility. She sees signs of change, with Massachusetts, Illinois and New Jersey pushing utilities to buy virtual power plant capacity. States and tech companies are also looking to such plants to make grid room for data centers.