Virtual power plant company Leap recognizes opportunity in the PJM market
Photo by Vivint Solar on Unsplash
Leap, a company providing a platform for launching and scaling virtual power plants (VPPs), has announced its entry into PJM Interconnection, the largest wholesale electricity market in the United States.
This expansion enables Leap’s technology partners with distributed energy resources (DERs) in PJM territory to take advantage of new energy market revenue streams, while also boosting grid resilience.
Leap’s software-only solution will facilitate access to PJM grid programmes for the providers of battery storage, electric vehicle (EV) chargers, and smart building technologies, allowing customer devices to automatically adjust energy usage to help balance the grid during emergency energy events.
Leap’s partners can also leverage the Leap Connect offering to streamline customer registration and data authorisation processes. With Leap’s interface and APIs, partners can manage their Leap-powered VPP offerings across different electricity markets.
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PJM operates the nation’s highest peak load and serves over 65 million customers across 13 states and the District of Columbia, which include several major cities and energy-intensive data centres. Amid rising energy demand and the retirement of aging thermal power plants, PJM’s capacity prices hit record highs for the 2025-26 delivery year. VPPs offer a cost-effective solution to address grid stability challenges while helping customers lower their energy bills, and they can be deployed far more quickly than traditional generation assets that require lengthy interconnection processes.
“With pressures on PJM’s grid intensifying, there’s never been a more important time to tap into the flexible capacity we already have installed in our homes and businesses through distributed energy resources,” said Andrew Hoffman, Chief Development Officer at Leap. “This marks Leap’s fifth US market launch, and we love seeing our partners use our universal platform to scale across regions without the heavy lift of navigating each new market entry. By facilitating fast, efficient participation in PJM, Leap will provide crucial grid relief while creating meaningful new revenue opportunities for our partners.”
Leap offered an example of these solutions: Carrier’s SmartSave programme, which helps homeowners manage energy use efficiently through grid-connected thermostats. SmartSave enables customers to optimise their energy consumption during peak demand periods while earning rewards for participation. Through its partnership with Leap, Carrier integrates its SmartSave program into VPPs.
“We’re thrilled to expand our SmartSave programme into PJM and bring our energy management solutions to even more customers in this critical region,” said Christine Rasche, Associate Director of Home Energy Management Solutions at Carrier.
“Leap’s platform made it easy to seamlessly scale our program into a new market, helping us deliver on our mission to empower customers with smarter, more sustainable energy solutions while contributing to grid stability.”
Originally published by Sean Wolfe on Factor This.
