CPower Energy, a Virtual Power Plant (VPP) platform, recently announced a new agreement with New Jersey’s Division of Property Management & Construction (DPMC) to help its state government facilities offset “rapidly rising” electricity prices by participating in demand response and energy flexibility programs for PJM Interconnection, the nation’s largest wholesale electricity market.
Demand response programs pay participants to use less electricity on rare occasions of relatively short duration when the grid is stressed. CPower argues that by participating in demand response without disrupting daily workflows, New Jersey state facilities can earn revenue and ease budget pressures while helping reduce strain on the grid, slowing the rise of electricity rates.
Under the new agreement with DPMC, government agencies and facilities can participate in demand response programs at no cost by reducing their discretionary electric loads. Participation may include temporarily reducing lighting and HVAC levels, scaling back non-essential office and IT equipment, and using fewer elevators. Facilities with on-site, compliant generators or battery systems can also use them to reduce their overall demand on the electric grid.
Last fall, CPower announced that its customers delivered an estimated 38 GWh of load relief to the grid from January through September 2025, 137% more than 2024 altogether. The company argues that the surge demonstrates VPPs’ ability to rapidly scale, harnessing customer flexibility to meet rising demand.
CPower customers contributed enough energy to power more than 8 million homes during a peak event, or approximately every household in the state of Texas, according to data CPower cited from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Many states are starting to explore VPP deployment, often seen as a cost-effective way to increase capacity. Most VPPs exist in the form of demand response programs. The Department Of Energy (DOE) released a report in 2023 stating that large-scale deployment of VPPs “could help address demand increases and rising peaks at lower cost than conventional resources, reducing the energy costs for Americans — one in six of whom are already behind on electricity bills.”
CPower also became first registered aggregator for the United States’ first program integrating aggregations of DERs into wholesale markets, the DER and Aggregation Participation Model program offered by the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO) in 2024.
