The astonishing rise in load growth across the country has led to a surge of interest in distributed energy resource management systems (DERMS) and virtual power plant (VPP) providers. Utilities, solar and battery manufacturers, and grid operators are all racing to deploy solutions that can manage this new distributed flexibility.
But there’s a fundamental problem: most VPP providers are putting the cart before the horse.
They create programs, roll out equipment, sign up homeowners, connect devices, and start controlling them all before knowing how much value there actually is to capture. As a result, VPPs are unable to capture the full value stack and leave money on the table by tackling only the obvious areas like coincident peaks and seasonal price spikes with traditional demand response. Other opportunities, such as frequency regulation, capacity payments, local grid support, and ancillary services, are too often ignored.
Anatomy of a winning VPP strategy
Successful VPP deployments start with a comprehensive analysis to understand where flexibility creates the most value. They use data and forecasting to identify high-value opportunities in advance, and design programs that maximize stacked revenues rather than relying on a single use case. Most importantly, they operate assets continuously through 24/7 monitoring, real-time data integration, and AI-driven portfolio optimization.
This is where analytics-first planning becomes essential.
Flexworks: Quantifying what’s been left on the table
At Intertrust, we developed Flexworks specifically to assess the value that utilities and VPP providers have left on the table. Our modeling tool is designed for energy companies to assess the value of distributed energy resources within their geographic area. Flexworks takes into account market structure, price dynamics, weather conditions, customer constraints, and program design to deliver robust valuations by simulating how DERs would perform under real market conditions and different operational strategies.
Flexworks quantifies every potential value stream, shows how much can actually be captured in practice, and helps utilities design programs that maximize performance rather than relying on trial-and-error. It also identifies which asset types—solar, storage, EVs, HVAC, thermostats, and others—offer the highest marginal value at each location.
The shift towards smarter planning
The market is starting to recognize this gap. At RE+ 2025 in Las Vegas, hundreds of utilities and energy companies stopped by our booth to learn about capturing the full value stack. The highest interest came from utilities who felt their programs weren’t meeting expectations, a clear signal that traditional approaches are falling short.
This growing awareness among utilities and energy companies signals a shift toward smarter, analytics-first strategies. With more industry leaders recognizing the limits of deploy-first-optimize-later approaches, the momentum is building toward comprehensive value stacking and data-driven planning.
We’re excited by our ongoing support of utilities and VPP providers as they turn insights into real-world results to unlock the full potential of distributed flexibility.
To this end, Intertrust will be continuing this conversation at Distributech 2026 in Dallas from February 2–5. If you’d like to learn how Flexworks can support your VPP or DER strategy, schedule a time to meet with us at the event. If you are interested in running your own simulation, you can schedule a demo here: Meet the Flexworks team.
About Zaki Alattar
Zaki Alattar is the Director of Product Management at Intertrust Technologies. Prior to Intertrust, Zaki worked as a Solar Engineer at Plankton Energy and was a Charif Souki Global Energy Fellow. He holds a BS in Business Administration from UC Berkeley Haas School of Business and an MS in Environmental Engineering at Columbia University.