Virtual Power Plant. A fleet of distributed energy assets (home batteries, EVs, hot water systems) coordinated by software to act as a single dispatchable unit in the NEM. VPPs register with AEMO and bid into the contingency FCAS markets on the same basis as a grid-scale battery. Energy is different: VPPs respond to spot price signals as unscheduled resources, so that value nets off inside a retailer's wholesale position rather than settling against a DUID. Examples: AGL VPP, ShinHub, Energy Locals, Simply Energy, Origin Loop.
A Virtual Power Plant (VPP) is a fleet of distributed energy resources — typically residential batteries, but sometimes also electric vehicles or hot-water systems — coordinated by software to act, from AEMO's perspective, as a single dispatchable unit. VPPs register with AEMO and bid into the contingency FCAS markets on the same basis as a grid-scale battery, aggregating many small, individually unregistrable assets into one that is.
Energy participation works differently. VPPs are unscheduled resources: they respond to spot price signals rather than receiving a dispatch instruction, so there is no DUID-level energy settlement to observe, and that value nets off inside a retailer's wholesale position instead. The AEMC's Integrating Price-Responsive Resources (IPRR) rule creates a voluntary "dispatch mode" that would let VPPs offer energy into dispatch properly, with main commencement 23 May 2027 — though AEMO proposed pausing and resetting the delivery path in April 2026.
Several retailers and aggregators operate VPPs in the NEM today, including AGL, ShinHub, Simply Energy, Energy Locals and Origin Loop. NEMPulse tracks their FCAS enablement and estimated revenue the same way it tracks a grid-scale BESS, on the VPP page — energy revenue is not part of that figure.
See also: Virtual power plants
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