VPP Market Participation in the NEM

Energy companies in Australia are developing innovative virtual power plant (VPP) offerings to customers. Whether it’s residential offers such as Amber for Batteries where customers pay the 5-minute wholesale electricity price while Amber helps charge and discharge the battery at the right time or range of commercial and industrial operators providing more bespoke and tailored offerings to their customers.
These offers not only improve customer outcomes but also system level outcomes through exerting downward pressure on wholesale prices and system service costs as well as improving system reliability.
But what are the underlying markets that VPP aggregators participate in to create much of this value? And what can we learn from different uptake rates in the various markets and schemes to inform future market design and regulation?