Delivering Grid Value at Scale.
Distributed Capacity Procurement
With new load growth on the horizon, utilities face the dual challenge of maintaining affordability and building fast enough to support economic growth. To meet this unprecedented demand, utilities are employing Distributed Capacity Procurement (DCP) to plan, site, deploy, and dispatch distributed energy resources (DERs) to create a more resilient, sustainable, and cost-effective grid.
Discover how Sparkfund's DCP model organizes and aligns incentives across each value chain segment to accelerate DER deployment.
What DCP Means for Utilities
Sparkfund's DCP model empowers utilities to become leaders of the energy transition and meet unprecedented demand.
By overcoming one of the main challenges with DERs to date — operational unpredictability and random siting — the DCP model integrates DERs into utility system planning processes, ultimately allowing for the delivery of better customer engagement, increased capacity resources, and a robust, local and skilled energy value chain.
Utility-led deployment of DERs, drives progress at a scale and pace that would be unattainable through fragmented, third-party efforts while increasing affordability, reliability, decarbonization, and energy equity.
Sparkfund has the experience and capabilities to help make it happen.
"We believe this program is scalable and flexible — we could add anywhere from 400 MW to over 1,000 MW to the system with options that allow for the DCP to be scaled to achieve almost any speed of deployment."
Distributed Capacity Procurement
The path to unlock grid value at scale by accelerating utility-led DER deployment in your territory.
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Affordability: Lowers system costs through grid value maximization and competitive local supply chain.
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Reliability: Enhances resilience, provides backup power, and improves community preparedness.
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Clean Energy: Accelerates solar, storage, and efficiency adoption, reducing emissions and bills.
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Equity: Prioritizes underserved communities to promote energy justice and reduce energy burden disparities.
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Economic Development: Attracts investments, creates jobs, and stimulates innovation in the territory.
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Faster Time to Power: Leverages modular DERs for rapid response to grid needs and electrification efforts.
How it Works
Roles & Responsibilities
Our goal is to help utilities accelerate the deployment of distributed assets, delivering flexible system-level capacity that reduces costs to all ratepayers by smoothing peak demand and avoiding or deferring the need for CTs/peakers, as well as reducing costly transmission and distribution system upgrades as demand grows rapidly.
Sparkfund simplifies the delivery of grid value at scale with key support functions that include:
- Customer engagement
- Value chain management
- Data and analysis
- Admin, safety, and compliance
"What I like about the DCP model is it allows us to leverage the expertise that already exists in the development community and the expertise that exists at Sparkfund and combine that with our planning expertise to deploy DERs more strategically. My hope is that we'll be able to bring the costs down and the value up."
Accelerate the VPP Model
Cohesive Customer Experience
Targeted Grid Value
Compared to a traditional VPP, the DCP approach leverages utility led planning to strategically deploy assets in places that avoid the most cost and creates the most value for the grid. An optimized value chain then maximizes the efficiency of existing distribution infrastructure by ensuring quality install and maintenance, cybersecurity, and alignment with justice commitments and goals.
"This DCP program could be considered a version of a utility-lead and funded Virtual Power Plant (VPP), but improved through utility planning to deliver increased value to the grid and to ratepayers, with an innovative deployment model allowing for a faster deployment of assets at a higher scale than previous VPP program models."
Accelerating Deployment to Unlock Grid Value
DCP By The Numbers
The DCP approach allows for 10x annual rate of deployment of installed capacity in your territory compared to aggregator-led VPPs.
Utility-led deployment model creates a better customer experience compared to the aggregator-led VPP model, targets the areas of the grid that need DERs the most, and incorporates grid value to make asset hosting decisions a low or no cost to the customer.
Kickstart Your Utility-Led DER Deployment
Utilities earlier in their customer deployment strategy journey can engage Sparkfund’s Distributed Capacity Procurement Readiness services to support custom deployment design and DCP strategy development with robust stakeholder engagement.
What DCP Means for Vendors, Developers, and OEMs
Utility-led DER deployment offers a unique opportunity to optimize the energy value chain, benefiting all stakeholders, including local vendors, developers, and Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs).
Under the DCP model, utility-led deployment of DERs turns utilities into the largest wholesale buyers in the market, creating a competitive ecosystem of local vendors and OEMs while mitigating the boom-and-bust cycles of independent DER projects.
This vibrant supply chain will create local jobs across utility territories and increase the number of skilled workers in the value chain for the design, installation, operation, and maintenance of DERs.
Vendors, developers, and OEMs who participate in DCPs gain significant advantages, including:
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Stable and Predictable Market: Gain access to a huge new wholesale customer.
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Streamlined Permitting and Construction: Reduces bureaucratic delays.
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Economy of Scale and Cost Reduction: Lowers costs through bulk purchasing.
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Enhanced Market Penetration: Opens new customer segments.
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Enhanced Credibility and Trust: Increases customer confidence.
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Grid-Specific Targeting: Ensures project success and support.
Relevant Distributed Energy Technologies
Battery Storage
Backup Generation
Solar Generation
