Leap and Enel Partner to Accelerate Nationwide Growth of Virtual Power Plants

The partnership connects more commercial and industrial distributed energy resources to utility demand response programs, providing fast, cost-effective support to the grid.

SAN FRANCISCO & ANDOVER, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Leap, a leading platform for building and scaling virtual power plants (VPPs), and Enel North America, a clean energy leader in the US and Canada, today announced a new partnership to connect more commercial and industrial (C&I) distributed energy resources (DERs) to utility demand response programs nationwide. Together, Enel and Leap will leverage C&I capacity already installed on the grid to help balance energy demand in real time in Enel’s extensive utility network while adding valuable revenue for Leap’s C&I partner base.

The collaboration will begin with three utility programs Enel manages in Washington, Arizona, and the Tennessee Valley and will expand over time to additional markets across the country.

Enel, the world leader in demand response and one of the largest VPP aggregators in North America, also serves as an exclusive partner to utilities across the United States to develop and manage demand response programs. Partnering with Leap enables Enel to quickly enroll more capacity into the demand response programs it administers, while providing C&I customers with new opportunities to earn revenue for supporting grid reliability.

For Leap, the partnership marks a wider expansion into vertically integrated utility markets, extending the reach of its automated platform and offering its technology partners additional revenue opportunities for the C&I resources they sell and manage.

“At a time of surging energy demand from data centers, electrification, and extreme weather events, it’s essential that we tap into the flexible capacity already available on the grid to maintain resiliency and keep energy costs down,” said Jason Michaels, CEO of Leap. “Working with Enel, one of the global leaders of the energy transition, allows our partners to access new markets through Leap’s automated platform, enabling more commercial customers to get rewarded for providing fast, cost-effective support to the grid.”

About Leap

Leap is the leading platform for building and scaling virtual power plants (VPPs). Through its software-only solution, Leap facilitates fast, easy and automated access to demand response and other grid services revenue streams for the providers of battery storage systems, EV chargers, smart building technologies, and other distributed energy resources (DERs). Managing over 400,000 energy sites and devices across U.S. energy markets, Leap empowers more than 100 technology partners and their customers to unlock new value and help create a more flexible, resilient grid powered by renewable resources. Visit leap.energy to learn more.

About Enel North America

Enel North America, part of the Enel Group, is a proven renewables leader delivering clean, flexible and sustainable energy solutions. The company develops, builds, owns and operates renewable power plants and demand response solutions, with 12 gigawatts (GW) of installed wind, solar and energy storage capacity and nearly 5 GW of demand response capacity in the US and Canada. Enel is a top-five industry leader for clean power capacity in the US, demand response in North America and utility-scale battery storage in Texas. Learn more at enelnorthamerica.com and on LinkedIn and YouTube.