Companies Team Up to Build Virtual Power Plant With Enhanced Security
Software firms EIPGRID and Intertrust are partnering to build a secure virtual power plant and distributed energy resource management platform for the clean energy market.
California-based Intertrust and South Korea’s EIPGRID recently announced a partnership to create a secure virtual power plant to distribute and manage clean energy resources.
Specifically, the pair aims to deliver a highly secure distributed energy resource management (DERM) platform with virtual power plant capabilities. Neither technology is new in the industry, but the companies plan to differentiate their solution with Intertrust’s secure authentication and data security features, combined with EIPGRID’s artificial intelligence-powered energy management platform. The goal is to build the most secure VPP/DERM system in the global market.
The DERM/VPP platform. Image used courtesy of Intertrust
What Are Virtual Power Plants?
Virtual power plants (VPPs) are a relatively new branch of smart grid infrastructure that, as the name suggests, manage and distribute energy assets virtually over cloud-based platforms. VPPs are increasingly attractive in the global transition to renewable energy because they address the need for demand flexibility to manage fluctuations and optimize energy efficiency in distributed energy resources such as rooftop solar panels, battery storage devices, and small wind farms.
Who Are EIPGRID and Intertrust?
The partnership is fitting for both companies’ respective end markets. EIPGRID, which spun out of software firm I-ON Communications in August 2022, markets a distributed energy resource management platform providing demand response services across several applications, from energy storage systems to EV charging to photovoltaic solar management. The company has case studies across Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, South Korea, and the United Kingdom, and customers such as Thailand-based renewable energy firm Gunkul Engineering and Canadian energy management software provider Rainforest Automation.
EIPGRID’s dashboard displays the real-time status of the user’s distributed energy resources. Image used courtesy of EIPGRID
Intertrust, on the other hand, specializes in distributed computing and data management software, providing data governance and virtualization, secure execution, and audit reporting through its flagship Intertrust Platform offering. According to its website, the company has partnered with several companies across industries to build use cases for its product, from utilities to EV charging providers to city governments. Some of its partners include German carmaker Mercedes-Benz (a project to streamline its charging station planning), European utility giant E.ON (load balancing for EV charging), and Germany-based RWE Renewables (optimizing its offshore wind farm operations).
We are thrilled to partner with @IntertrustTech to launch a secure and reliable VPP platform - ushering in a new era of energy transition and distributed energy resource management.
— EIPGRID Inc. via Twitter (@eipgrid) January 19, 2023
MORE https://t.co/EwUIoaqkhA#virtualpowerplant #DER #energytransition #cybersecurity pic.twitter.com/LeZiannSXB
The two companies plan to combine their expertise to create the market’s most secure VPP and distributed energy management platform. Such a system would be in high demand due to increasing cyberattacks on energy infrastructure.
Several companies are working on VPP technology. Tesla and PG&E, for example, are building California’s largest virtual power plant, and Swell Energy recently raised $120 million to expand its VPP programs.
Featured image used courtesy of Adobe Stock
