Two conversations in two days highlighting the problem with corporate power in the energy sector. Just learned the story of the Brayton Point Power Station, a massive coal power plant in New England.

In 2013, it was purchased by an innocuous-sounding private equity firm that abruptly announced its closure. Said firm had already cut some clever deals to secure the profits from several other power plants should capacity market prices rise.

So, this 1500-megawatt plant goes offline in the middle of the regional capacity auction, raising the total cost of capacity for customers by *$1 billion* in days.

Why is this so fascinating (beyond my ongoing interest in whether private equity serves any useful purpose in our economy)? Because I just interviewed @ohmconnect CEO Cisco DeVries this week for the Local Energy Rules podcast, all about Resi Station, a huge virtual power plant.

If our regional power markets have the right rules to allow many small customers to aggregate their ability to deliver energy (through curtailment or on-site solar), then markets are harder to game.

Additionally, even if a Resi Station virtual power plant was present in 2013 in New England but it wasn't enough to stop the rise in capacity market prices, the financial benefits of the higher prices would have accrued to thousands of participating customers.

Additionally, those thousands of customers would also represent a novel constituency against energy market-distorting policy.

Also this -> Virtual power plant aggregators can pay people in marginalized communities to lower their energy use, AND that power can help shut down dirty peaking power plants in their neighborhoods. More equitable outcomes from more competitive markets!

So thanks to @TysonSlocum for his tutorial on private equity shenanigans in energy and to @ciscodv for the forthcoming interview on Local Energy Rules, because distributed energy solutions mean better, more competitive markets and a better deal for consumers.