In episode 5 of the USEA Power Sector Podcast, Department of Energy Loan Programs Office Senior Advisor Jen Downing, the lead author on DOE’s just-released Virtual Power Plant, or VPP, “Liftoff Paper”, faces questions from journalist Herman K. Trabish on how VPPs composed of aggregated customer-owned distributed energy resources can replace natural gas peaker plants in protecting power system reliability during growing late afternoon and evening demand spikes and reward electricity customers for participating.