Welcome to the final installment of our blog series exploring the Leap platform’s automation capabilities. Previously, we mapped out the most effective pathways for integration with Leap’s suite of universal APIs for residential and commercial and industrial (C&I) technology providers. Today, we’ll unpack how API integration has driven stronger energy market performance and portfolio growth for Leap’s partners. 

Businesses operating virtual power plants (VPPs) can maximize the revenue they can earn in energy markets by participating with as many energy assets as possible, expanding to new programs and performing well during grid events.

With over 75 companies leveraging the Leap platform to orchestrate their VPPs, we have visibility into how partners are growing and performing across different industries and technology verticals. We crunched the numbers to compare the results of our API-integrated and non API-integrated partners over the last couple of years, and the impact is clear: partners who automate at least some of their VPP operations through the Leap APIs see significantly better results in their Leap-powered VPP offerings.   

Across all industries and verticals, API-integrated partners:

• Grow revenue and meters 3X faster

• Perform in energy markets 2X better

• Earn 36% more dollars-per-kW

Let’s unpack each of these results:

API-integrated partners grow their revenue and meters 3X faster.

Leap’s API use cases are key to unlocking both rapid portfolio growth and VPP revenue growth. Automating meter management enables partners to significantly grow the number of customers participating in their VPP programs by eliminating the operational overhead of syncing meter inventories and tracking status changes. In addition, automation of event dispatching removes the manual work required to respond to grid events, which becomes more and more burdensome as partners grow their number of meters and stack new programs.

By leveraging these APIs, Leap partners can quickly scale to new markets and programs without increasing the size of their VPP operations teams. For example, a large commercial and residential smart building provider who automated both dispatch and meter management - while simultaneously launching operations in a new market - saw a dramatic 5X increase in both revenue and number of meters enrolled from summer 2022 to summer 2023.  

API-integrated partners perform in energy markets 2X better.

Event dispatch automation also clearly leads to more consistent and improved performance, since an operations team no longer needs to manage scheduling event responses. Human error and typos are inevitable, and as several of our partners have noticed, this can negatively impact VPP performance due to incorrectly-scheduled events or the wrong meters getting dispatched. Additionally, emergency events and programs with limited advance notice periods require on-call support, which can lead to rushed decisions to get events scheduled or missed events altogether.  

On average, Leap partners who have integrated with the Dispatch API see a 2X improvement in capacity and energy performance compared to partners who haven’t. Some partners achieve even stronger performance after integration: a commercial battery storage provider who automated event dispatching has over-performed this year with capacity performance of 111%, which means they provided more kW capacity to the grid than they had originally committed to. And, the overall performance improvement that integrated partners experience ultimately increases their VPP revenues.

API-integrated partners earn 36% more dollars-per-kW.

Finally, when you combine improved performance with an increase in the number of stackable programs within a region, you are going to earn more dollars per nominated kW: on average, API-integrated partners earn 36% more dollars-per-kW than non-integrated partners. For example, a growing home HVAC device manufacturer tripled the number of programs they participated in this year while ensuring over 100% capacity performance. This resulted in significantly higher $/kW of nominated capacity compared to their non-API-integrated peers.

Automating for scale and impact

Over the next couple of years, VPPs are primed to become mainstream, highly-valued solutions for advancing decarbonization, improving grid stability and lowering energy costs. For businesses looking to launch and expand their own VPPs, automation will be the key to maximizing revenue and achieving scale. Leap has developed its suite of APIs to drive efficiencies across all stages of VPP operations, setting our partners up for success through the automation of key processes. 

To learn more about Leap’s automation capabilities and executing an effective API integration strategy for your business, sign up for our free webinar coming up on Wednesday, January 24th.