February 2, 2026
As virtual power plants (VPPs) move from pilot projects to critical grid infrastructure, more companies are looking to monetize the distributed energy resources (DERs) they sell, manage, or support. Device manufacturers, energy service providers, and building operators all see the same opportunity: enroll their DERs into grid services programs to generate new revenue, differentiate their offerings, and deliver more value to their customers, all while helping stabilize increasingly constrained power grids.
On the surface, participation in grid services can look deceptively simple: enroll resources, respond to grid events, get paid. Many companies assume this is something they can stand up internally with a modest investment.
But behind every high-performing VPP is a web of regulatory requirements, data systems, operational workflows, and market-specific rules. What may look manageable for a single program quickly becomes unworkable as portfolios grow across an expanding, increasingly dynamic market landscape.
The Visible Work—and the Hidden Cost
Getting started in grid services requires a set of one-time efforts that are already outside the core focus of most businesses:
Researching and evaluating program options across markets
Contracting with utilities, ISOs, and program administrators
Scoping and building required systems integrations
Designing customer offers and launching recruitment campaigns
Training internal teams on new programs, rules, and processes
And, ongoing program operations require continuous attention throughout the year. Customer resources must be enrolled and configured correctly. Program settings must be optimized and updated as rules change. Events must be tracked, confirmed, dispatched, and audited. Performance must be calculated accurately and payments reconciled. The list goes on!
Every one of these steps carries operational risk. Miss an event notification, miscalculate performance, or submit incomplete data, and revenue could disappear. Worse, poor performance damages credibility with program operators, limiting future participation and capacity awards.
Some companies can make this work for one program in one market. But every additional geography, utility, or program multiplies the effort. All setup and operational steps must be repeated, often with entirely different requirements.
In the U.S. alone, hundreds of grid services programs exist across a highly fragmented landscape. Rules change frequently. New programs launch while others evolve or sunset. Supporting this environment at scale requires sustained expertise in regulation, market operations, data science, software engineering, and program management—capabilities that are rarely core to device or energy product businesses.
The Reality: You Can’t Build This Alone
Simply put, building and operating a scalable VPP platform internally doesn’t pencil out for many businesses.
VPP operations depend on a tightly coordinated set of systems that must function in harmony to ensure resources are available, responsive, and accurately measured when the grid needs them most. Infrastructure that works in one market rarely extends to another without significant rework. Manual processes fail quickly as portfolios grow.
Choosing the right platform partner isn’t a convenience decision—it determines whether grid services participation will scale or stall.
Here are several areas that appear straightforward at first glance, but rapidly become failure points without purpose-built infrastructure:
The Devil Is in the Data
Data ingestion is one of the most complex and fragile aspects of operating a VPP.
Every program requires different data, in different formats, at different levels of granularity. And, a single resource may involve inputs from technology providers, asset owners, utilities, and third-party administrators. Data quality varies widely across markets, and standards are inconsistent.
What starts as a simple enrollment can quickly unravel. A site may host multiple DERs. A single DER may be eligible for multiple programs. Duplicate enrollments, missing data, or conflicting records trigger questions from program operators and can delay approvals, reduce awarded capacity, or invalidate participation altogether.
Leap addresses this challenge through a proprietary data ingestion service called MEDIQ (Meter External Details Ingestion Quality). MEDIQ inspects every incoming data file, flags missing or anomalous records, and maintains a full audit trail of historical actions at the meter or asset level.
Critically, MEDIQ automatically detects and prevents duplicate enrollments, ensuring the same resource is never counted twice in the same program.
Since a meter can’t curtail load more than once during an event, preventing duplication is fundamental to reliable, high-performing VPP capacity.
Nominations: Promises Made, Promises Kept
A nomination is a commitment to the market that a specific amount of capacity (kW) or energy (kWh) will be available when called upon. Accurate nominations are critical to grid reliability and market confidence. If nominations overstate actual capability, performance suffers.
Underperformance can trigger penalties, derates, and reduced future participation. If nominations are too conservative, revenue is left on the table.
Manually setting nominations may work for a handful of homogeneous assets. It’s impossible for large, diverse portfolios spanning multiple programs and geographies.
Nominations may also need to be updated as devices age, operating conditions shift, customer behavior changes, and program rules evolve. Effective nomination management requires ongoing analysis of historical performance, load characteristics, operating constraints, and market risk tolerance.
Leap’s machine learning–based nominations engine addresses this challenge using aggregated, anonymized performance data from more than 500,000 resources. The time-series forecasting model generates resource-level nominations based on load type, statistical behavior, and prior event performance. Resources with similar curtailment characteristics are grouped to maximize performance and reduce underperformance risk.
When partners enroll resources on the Leap platform, nominations are generated for every eligible asset. Partners retain visibility and control through the management portal or API, allowing targeted adjustments without sacrificing portfolio-wide optimization.
Dispatch Time Is Must-Go Time
Grid operators schedule events when the system is under stress or when they need to validate performance through capacity test events. When events occur, response time matters.
Event signaling varies widely by program. Some provide days of notice; others expect immediate response. Notification methods range from APIs to emails. Missed or delayed dispatches directly reduce performance and revenue and erode operator trust.
Leap’s dispatch desk continuously monitors event notifications across all supported markets and programs. Integrations with operator systems ensure that partners receive event signals in near real time. Even programs that rely solely on email notifications can be automated. Our dispatch desk also manages the additional complexity that comes with confirmations, updates, and cancellations, ensuring partners never miss critical changes during events.
Baselines: Where Revenue Is Won or Lost
Baselines define what a resource would have consumed or produced if it had not participated in a grid event. They are the foundation of performance measurement and payment. Some programs apply standardized baselines, while others require participants to calculate their own. Waiting for settlement reports to understand performance often means waiting weeks or sometimes months after events have occurred. By then, opportunities to correct underperformance are gone.
Leap’s proprietary Baselines and Performance Service (BAPS) calculates baselines across all programs according to program or market-specific rules. This enables timely, accurate performance analytics and automated revenue forecasting throughout the program season.
With real-time insight into performance, partners can identify underperforming resources early, take corrective action, and maximize revenue before seasons end, rather than discovering issues after settlements are finalized.
Leap: Built for Scale and Longevity
Ultimately, businesses face a clear choice: continue investing in bespoke infrastructure that must be rebuilt and maintained as markets change, or rely on a platform designed to absorb that complexity and help mitigate risk across programs.
Leap exists for the latter path. By operating shared infrastructure for data ingestion, enrollment, dispatch, performance, and settlement, Leap enables partners to scale participation across markets without recreating the same operational layers themselves.
Virtual power plants can only fulfill their promise if participation is built to last. Scale is not optional—and neither is the platform that supports it.
