Virtual Power Plant Demand Response Patents: Who Leads 2026
- China dominates the filing base. 412 of 521 records were filed at CNIPA, versus 42 in the US and 21 at the EPO — the centre of gravity for this claim space sits firmly in China.
- Filing growth has stalled after a 2024 peak. Filings rose from 2 in 2017 to a peak of 127 in 2024, but the midpoint year (2022, 56 filings) shows the growth curve flattening rather than accelerating into that peak.
- Business-process claims outnumber grid-hardware claims. 448 records carry a G06Q business-method IPC code against 349 in H02J power-systems — dispatch, scheduling and market-optimisation logic is more heavily claimed than the underlying grid equipment.
Filing growth compares 2021 (44 records) with 2024 (127) — a three-year span. 2024 is the most recent year we treat as complete: publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 onwards are still filling in and any growth rate that ends there would understate the field. Top-5 share is the combined record count of the five largest assignees divided by all 521 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
A virtual power plant (VPP) aggregates distributed energy resources — batteries, EV chargers, rooftop solar, flexible industrial loads — behind a single dispatch layer that can respond to grid signals as if it were one plant. Demand response is the commercial mechanism that makes that aggregation valuable: shedding, shifting or selling load in response to price or grid conditions. This landscape covers patent families filed between 2015 and mid-2026 that combine VPP or aggregated-DER architecture with demand response, load management, flexibility aggregation or peak-shaving claims, classified under H02J3/14, G06Q50/06 and H02J3/00.
Filing activity is concentrated in a narrow set of receiving offices and a short list of repeat filers, with most of the volume filed in the last five years — a pattern consistent with a claim space that opened recently and filled quickly rather than one that has matured over a long period.
Filing trends and technology composition
Two views of the same 521-family dataset: how filing volume has moved year over year, and how that volume splits across the technology areas each family touches.
Filing trend, 2017-2026
Filings climbed from 2 in 2017 to a peak of 127 in 2024. With 2022 sitting at 56 — roughly the midpoint of that climb — the trajectory reads as a fast run-up followed by a plateau rather than sustained acceleration. The 2025-2026 figures are still incomplete: publication typically lags filing by about 18 months, so recent years will revise upward as more applications publish.
Technology composition by IPC subclass
G06Q (business, commerce and administrative data processing) appears in 448 of 521 records, ahead of H02J (power supply and grid systems) at 349. G06F and G06N — general computing and AI-based computing — appear in 111 and 93 records respectively, indicating that a meaningful share of filings claim the optimisation or forecasting logic rather than physical grid hardware. B60L (EV propulsion), G05B (control systems), H04L and H04W (communications) form a much smaller tail, suggesting EV-integrated and communications-layer VPP claims are comparatively less crowded.
Shares are the percentage of the 521 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Virtual Power Plant Demand Response with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about virtual power plant demand response and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaRepresentative filing and most-cited prior art
AU2024330449A1 — Device and method for operating a virtual power plant
A method for operating a virtual power plant according to an embodiment of the present invention is a method for operating a virtual power plant (VPP) by a VPP operating device associated with a plurality of demand response (DR) resources, and may comprise the steps of: allocating a power reduction amount to each of the DR resources in response to a power reduction request; when a sale request for at least a part of the allocated power reduction amount is received from a first DR resource among the DR resources, providing information on power for sale to the remaining DR resources; and when at least one second DR resource having purchased the power for sale is determined, calculating a power…Filed by LG Energy Solution, Ltd., published 2025-07-24.
View full record| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CN110188950A | 基于多代理技术的虚拟电厂供电侧和需求侧优化调度建模方法 | 50 |
| 2 | CN109523052A | 一种考虑需求响应和碳交易的虚拟电厂优化调度方法 | 49 |
| 3 | US9300141B2 | Virtual power plant system and method incorporating renewal energy, storage and scalable value-based optimiza… | 49 |
| 4 | US20170207633A1 | Aggregated and optimized virtual power plant control | 40 |
| 5 | CN113902227A | 一种虚拟电厂优化调度方法及装置 | 36 |
| 6 | CN108875992A | 一种考虑需求响应的虚拟电厂日前优化调度方法 | 33 |
| 7 | CN115271467A | 考虑电碳协同优化的虚拟电厂调度优化方法及应用 | 31 |
| 8 | CN114243779A | 基于虚拟电厂的用户可调负荷资源需求响应方法及系统 | 30 |
| 9 | CN113792953A | 一种虚拟电厂优化调度方法及系统 | 27 |
| 10 | CN119692511A | 一种基于分布式能源的虚拟电厂协同优化运行方法 | 24 |
Citation counts reflect influence within the searched corpus and skew toward older records; treat them as a signal of foundational status, not of current filing activity.
Patent titles are shown in the language they were filed in, not translated, so that each record stays verifiable against the original filing — a translated title will not match in Eureka or in any national register. Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Three patterns stand out once the raw counts are set against each other: where the claim space is dense, where citation weight sits, and where collaboration is concentrated.
CNIPA is the primary battleground
With 412 of 521 records filed in China against 42 in the US and 21 at the EPO, freedom-to-operate work for this space has to start with a Chinese prior-art search regardless of where a product will ship. US and European filings are a much smaller, more selective subset.
Growth has plateaued, not accelerated
Filings rose from 2 in 2017 to 127 in 2024, but the 2022 midpoint of 56 shows the curve flattening well before the peak. Several of the most active named assignees show 0 filings in the latest tracked year and -100% year-on-year, consistent with a cohort that filed early and has since gone quiet.
Optimisation logic is claimed more than hardware
Business-process and scheduling claims (G06Q) outnumber power-systems claims (H02J), meaning much of the contested space is dispatch algorithms and market logic rather than physical aggregation equipment — a harder area to design around cleanly because method claims can read broadly across implementations.
Collaboration is narrow and utility-driven
Only 10 co-assignee pairs appear in the dataset, and the strongest — 9 shared filings between two state grid entities — points to utility-and-research-institute pairings rather than broad industry consortia. Most applicants file alone.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to virtual power plant demand response, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the gaps sit
The applicant base skews heavily toward Chinese state grid entities and affiliated research institutes, with a smaller group of international corporates filing more selectively. Recent-year momentum has cooled across the most visible names.
Utilities and their research arms lead volume
The most active named assignees are grid utilities and affiliated power-science research institutes, often filing jointly, which matches the concentration of filings in China and the pattern of co-assignee pairs built around a single parent utility.
Early leaders have gone quiet
Several of the assignees with the largest historical filing counts, including the leading state grid entity and multiple university co-filers, show zero filings in the latest tracked year. That does not mean the space is closed — it is more consistent with a first wave of filing having already claimed the obvious ground.
Corporate entrants are filing narrower, later claims
LG Energy Solution's 2025 filing on VPP operating devices shows international corporates entering with tightly scoped device-and-method claims rather than broad architecture claims, a sign that the broad architectural ground is already occupied.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| State Grid Corporation of China | 0 | -100% |
| State Grid Shanghai Municipal Electric Power Company | 0 | -100% |
| North China Electric Power University | 0 | -100% |
| LG Energy Solution, Ltd. | 0 | -100% |
| Southeast University | 0 | -100% |
| Korea District Heating Corporation | 0 | — |
| Nuvve Corporation | 0 | -100% |
| Shenzhen Power Supply Co., Ltd. | 0 | -100% |
Turning this landscape into a filing or freedom-to-operate decision
The counts above show where the claim space is dense and where it has gone quiet. Turning that into a specific filing or design-around decision means running the same questions against the full claim text.
Check freedom-to-operate before drafting
With 448 records carrying business-process claims on dispatch and optimisation logic, a new filing in this area needs claim-by-claim comparison against the densest prior art, not just a keyword search.
Run a freedom-to-operate check in Eureka →Track the quiet filers for re-entry
Several top assignees show -100% year-on-year filing activity. That is worth monitoring rather than assuming permanent — a change in filing behaviour from a state grid entity or research institute is an early signal worth catching.
Set up assignee monitoring in Eureka →Common questions about VPP demand response patents
Filing activity is concentrated among Chinese state grid utilities and their affiliated power-science research institutes, which together account for the largest share of the 521 families in this dataset. These entities frequently co-file with each other, forming a small number of strong co-assignee pairs rather than broad multi-party consortia. International corporates such as LG Energy Solution appear later in the timeline with narrower, more specific device and method claims rather than broad architecture claims.
412 of the 521 records in this dataset were filed at CNIPA, far ahead of the US (42) and the EPO (21). This reflects both the scale of China's grid-modernisation programme and the presence of large state grid utilities that file defensively and prolifically. Anyone assessing freedom-to-operate for a VPP demand-response product should treat a Chinese prior-art search as a baseline requirement, not an optional extra, regardless of the target launch market.
Filing volume grew from 2 records in 2017 to a peak of 127 in 2024, but the midpoint year of 2022 (56 filings) shows growth flattening well before that peak rather than accelerating into it. Several of the most active named assignees show zero filings in the most recent tracked year, a -100% year-on-year drop. That pattern is more consistent with an early wave of filers having already staked out the obvious claim territory than with a technology in early growth.
In this dataset the two terms overlap heavily rather than forming separate clusters: most filings that claim demand response also touch load management, flexibility aggregation or peak shaving within the same claim set. The IPC composition shows business-process codes (G06Q, 448 records) alongside power-systems codes (H02J, 349 records) co-occurring in the same families, meaning the dispatch logic and the grid-side load action are typically claimed together rather than as competing approaches.
The technology composition shows a steep drop-off outside the core G06Q and H02J codes: EV-integration claims (B60L) appear in only 26 records, control-system claims (G05B) in 17, and communications-layer claims (H04L, H04W) in 11 and 7 respectively. That relative thinness suggests EV-charger-integrated aggregation, wireless DER telemetry and mixed-DER control-loop stability are less densely claimed than core dispatch and scheduling logic, though a full claim-scope check is needed before filing into any of them.
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Disclaimer. This page is generated from Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent and scientific-literature records, and is provided for general information and reference only.
Patent data carries inherent limitations: recent filings (typically the most recent 18–24 months) are under-counted due to standard publication lag; counts may be reported at either a patent-family or a patent-record basis and are not always directly comparable; classification, applicant-name, and citation data may contain errors, duplicates, or omissions; and the underlying search query defines and constrains the scope shown. As a result, the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing on this page constitutes an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate, or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial, investment, or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Any patent, commercial, or strategic decision should be verified independently and reviewed with qualified patent, legal, and domain professionals. Patsnap makes no warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy, completeness, or fitness for any particular purpose of the information presented.
Machine translation. Assignee and organisation names originally recorded in Chinese, Japanese or Korean have been rendered into English by an AI translation step so that the tables stay readable. These renderings are best-effort and may not match a company’s registered English name; the original name is what the underlying patent record carries, and it is what any Eureka query launched from this page uses.