In an opinion piece for Utility Dive, Commonwealth Edison vice president Andrew Plenge argues that Illinois' grid needs to make smarter use of customer-owned technologies to handle growing demand. He points to a recently approved Scheduled Dispatch Virtual Power Plant program, which pays customers with eligible batteries to make capacity available during peak periods, as a useful first step. But Plenge says the real goal is a broader framework, to be filed by the end of 2027, that goes beyond batteries to include electric vehicles, smart appliances, and other flexible devices.
The proposed framework would coordinate these distributed resources to reduce demand during the most strained periods, potentially lowering system costs and avoiding expensive plant and infrastructure upgrades. Plenge emphasizes that getting the details right will require clear rules for how different technologies participate, how their contributions are measured and valued, and how programs can avoid customer fatigue while still meeting grid needs. He also stresses that affordability should be a central measure of success, with transparent tracking of participation and system impacts.
Because the piece is written by a utility executive, it reflects ComEd's perspective and does not include independent analysis or opposing views. Still, it offers a concrete outline of how one large Illinois utility is thinking about scaling virtual power plants from a battery-only pilot to a broader customer-centric grid resource.