Now, instead of pushing power plants to generate extra power by burning fossil fuels, some utilities are paying customers like Richardson to become part of what's known as a virtual power plant. Brendan Haley, director of policy at the Ottawa-based think-tank Efficiency Canada, says unlike traditional power plants, virtual power plants can do more than just generate power — if they include devices like batteries from electric cars, they can also soak up and store excess energy. And while big power plants tend to be far away from the customers that use them, virtual power plants exchange power locally, which is more efficient. According to Haley, all of this is what makes virtual power plants better than traditional generation-only power plants. Enlarge image (new window) New power plants and transmission lines are expensive and take a long time to build compared to virtual power plants.
