ENERGY planners who are hung up on the idea that expensive, inside-the-box solutions such as gas or utility-scale battery storage are the only reliable answer to the challenge of maintaining sufficient reserves of electricity might want to take a look at a recent study carried out on behalf of Google by the Brattle Group. The research found that electric utilities could meet their requirements for resource adequacy with so-called virtual power plants (VPPs) and at less than 60 percent of the cost the two most common current choices, natural gas and large-scale battery storage.

What Brattle Group's researchers were studying was what is called "peaking" power, power plants that do not need to run constantly (which is baseload power) but can be switched on or increase their output and deliver more energy to the grid almost immediately at times when demand is high. Peaking power is not exactly synonymous with reserve power, which is surplus capacity that can be used in an emergency such as a primary plant shutting down unexpectedly, but it can be used for that purpose.

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