The versatility of battery storage to provide a broad range of services makes them “particularly valuable” to virtual power plants (VPPs), according to a senior advisor to the US Department of Energy (DOE).

A US$10.5 billion programme to “strengthen grid resilience and reliability” across the US includes funding for microgrids and other projects that will integrate battery storage technologies.

State-sponsored investment fund NY Green Bank, will lend US$25 million to NineDot Energy, a developer of energy storage systems in New York.

Leap, a provider of software to aggregate distributed energy resources into VPPs, has raised US$12 million equity investments.

Enel has revealed the role its digital and distributed technology arm is playing in a European Union-funded project to simplify integration of energy storage systems.

As distributed energy resources such as residential solar rooftop increase in the next decade, aggregation into virtual power plants could save US utilities up to US$35 billion, according to The Brattle Group.

This edition of news in brief from around the world in energy storage focuses on virtual power plant action in the US.

Finland telecommunications firm Elisa has received €3.9 million from the government to form a VPP using batteries which could be the largest of its kind in Europe.

A roundup of news from the residential energy storage sector from Australia to California.

Google’s smart home division has joined a group of companies including Ford, Sunpower and Sunrun in founding a new partnership centred around scaling the market for virtual power plants (VPP).