A motley collection of some of the major power brokers in Distributed Energy in the US have been pulled together by the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) into an initiative that should see virtual power plants explode on the US scene over the next two to three years. This sudden acceleration of VPPs could significantly upset the control that US utilities have over US power markets. RMI is calling this the Virtual Power Plant Partnership or VP3. The deal includes car heavyweights General Motors and Ford, SunPower, and Sunrun, two of the largest installers of home solar and batteries, along with Google’s Nest smart thermostat subsidiary, and demand response and VPP software suppliers OhmConnect, Olivine, SPAN, SwitchDin, and Virtual Peaker. Initial…