Back in 2017, a hurricane destroyed Puerto Rico’s power grid. Both allow the utility to draw on the batteries when the power grid requires more capacity. While Virginia has not had a VPP program before, appliance-based demand response will be familiar to residents who opted into Dominion Energy’s “Smart Cooling Rewards” program. A well-designed VPP program, by contrast, takes the burden off the individual. I emailed Nathan Frost, Dominion’s general manager for new business and customer solutions, to ask for more information about the VPP program.