Lawmakers Hear Pitch to Scale Virtual Power Plants to Shave Peak Demand

Representative Gamba told the Senate Committee on Energy and Environment on May 28 that Oregon faces a near-term risk of rolling blackouts and urged faster deployment of distributed power plants under House Bill 3609.

"The coming load avalanche that we've had headed our way, is going to need a lot of solutions," Representative Gamba said, emphasizing peak summer demand moments where "we're going to see the rolling blackouts when they come." He said the bill is intended to expand who may aggregate customer-side resources and get those resources online sooner.

Advocates framed the proposal as a low-cost way to add capacity by coordinating customer-owned resources—home batteries, solar, smart thermostats, electric vehicles and smart water heaters—so they behave like a centrally managed power plant. Jessica Adamson of the Oregon Solar and Storage Industries Association told the committee, "Energy procured through virtual power…