Virtual power plants continue to be one of the buzziest energy industry obsessions.

For good reason.

It can take many months or years to build one-off utility-scale power plants at a central location such as a nuclear reactor, solar farm, or offshore wind project.

Virtual power plants (VPPs), on the other hand, can replicate the scale of these projects much faster by aggregating energy technologies connected virtually and operating in many homes or businesses. Controlled by software, solar panels, EV chargers, battery energy storage systems, heat pumps, smart thermostats, and other distributed energy technologies can be synced up to send power to, or reduce demand on, the grid as needed.

CPower, Sunrun, Uplight, and Voltus are among the many companies jockeying to operate virtual power plants in the U.S. But public sector players see a role for themselves in the space, too.

It turns out that one of the leading public sector VPP operators is in my own backyard.