Frontier Forum: How VPPs earn grid-scale trust [partner content]

March 10, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

🎙️ The Voices & The Context

The Format: This is a professional, structured interview, part of a "Frontier Forum" series. It feels like a deep-dive podcast episode for an industry-savvy audience, but the conversation is surprisingly accessible and engaging.
The Key Players:
- Stephen Lacey (Host): The moderator, guiding the conversation with sharp, insightful questions.
- Stacey Phillips (Guest): Managing Director of Customer Load Management at Duke Energy. She's the practical, "old school" utility veteran who has been running these programs for decades. She's the voice of real-world experience and customer focus.
- Seth Frader Thompson (Guest): Co-founder and President of Energy Hub. He's the tech-forward entrepreneur, pushing the boundaries of what's possible with software and connected devices. He's the visionary.
The Vibe: Educational and Optimistic. It's a serious discussion about grid reliability and technology, but it's filled with genuine excitement about the potential of virtual power plants (VPPs). The chemistry between Stacey's grounded realism and Seth's ambitious vision creates a compelling dynamic.

🗝️ Key Themes & Topics

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What you'll learn

1 (00:00) **🎙️ Introduction: Stacey Phillips (Duke Energy) & Seth Frader-Thompson (Energy Hub)**
2 (05:32) **The Reliability of Modern VPPs**
3 (10:04) **Integrating VPPs into Integrated Resource Plans (IRPs)**
4 (13:03) **Distinguishing Traditional Demand Response from Modern VPPs**
5 (16:08) **The HUELES Test: Achieving Parity with Power Plants**
6 (18:37) **"Customer Power Plant" vs. "Virtual Power Plant"**
7 (20:11) **The VPP Maturity Model (Levels 0-4)**

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Show Notes

Can a grid operator tell the difference between a virtual power plant and a traditional one?

That’s the idea behind the Huels Test, a framework developed by EnergyHub to answer a simple but consequential question: when does a distributed fleet of customer devices become reliable enough to function like a power plant?

Passing the test means more than just aggregating thermostats or batteries. It means delivering predictable, repeatable performance that utility planners and operators trust enough to rely on during system peaks. And it’s no longer theoretical.

During a series of brutal winter cold snaps across the Southeast this year, Duke Energy leaned on tens of thousands of connected devices — smart thermostats, batteries, and water heaters — to help manage record-breaking winter peaks. Together, they formed a virtual power plant that the utility could dispatch when the grid was tight.

In this Frontier Forum, Stephen Lacey talks with Stacy Phillips, Managing Director of Customer Load Management at Duke Energy, and Seth Frader-Thompson, president and co-founder of EnergyHub, about the spectrum of virtual power plants.

They discuss how VPPs are evolving from traditional demand-response programs into operational grid resources, and what still needs to change before utilities treat them exactly like conventional power plants.

This conversation was recorded live as part of Latitude Media’s Frontier Forum with EnergyHub. Watch the full video here.

EnergyHub works with more than 160 utilities across North America to build and scale virtual power plants using its Edge DERMS platform. Read EnergyHub's white paper outlining the VPP maturity model and discover what VPPs can do for your grid.