Funding & Partnership

An infrastructure bet on state energy policy.

EPDI works alongside state regulators to implement clean energy policy better and faster. This page is for the funders, foundations, and partners considering supporting that work: what we're raising for Year 2 of the VPP Convergence Project, how progress is measured, and how to start a conversation.

Discuss Year 2 funding

The case

01 — Leverage

The decisions happen at the state level.

Federal climate policy is contracting. The decisions that determine whether US energy systems actually decarbonize are happening at state Public Utilities Commissions — under-resourced, under-staffed, and facing the most consequential regulatory questions in a generation.

02 — The gap

Laws pass. Implementation stalls.

States keep passing ambitious energy legislation. Progress stalls in what comes after: the regulatory processes where laws become programs, rules and energy rates. The regulatory proceedings that close the gaps are where the fewest resources are — and where targeted support accelerates better outcomes.

03 — Measurement

Policy progress can be observable.

Policy work is where funder dollars often disappear from view. After a law passes, it's hard to measure the impact of additional funding. It doesn't have to be this way: EPDI's Policy Readiness Levels (PRL) framework makes policy progress observable. States move through defined stages, and funders see what their support advanced, by state and by policy topic.

Validation

Built alongside state regulators.

Four state engagements, a national alignment effort, and a published NARUC framework, all produced by a small team working well beyond its resource base.

Active

VPP Convergence Project

Accelerating the policy changes needed for Virtual Power Plants to take off nationwide

Maryland Energy Storage Program

EPDI has been working closely with PSC Staff to design a comprehensive program to achieve the state’s target equitably and cost-effectively, while enabling the PSC to oversee an efficient process involving many stakeholders and perspectives.

New Hampshire Interconnection Rules

A full set of draft interconnection rules, completed ahead of schedule.

LDES National Consortium

A national policy roadmap for long-duration energy storage.

NARUC Resilience Framework

A shared vocabulary for resilience policy, in active use through ongoing trainings.

The ask

VPP Convergence Project, Year 2.

Launched October 2025 · Entering Year 2

EPDI is seeking $500K in funding, committed by the end of 2026, to fund Year 2 of the VPP Convergence Project.

Discuss Year 2 funding

Funding the Convergence Project funds both the VPP Policy Map (the content) and the VPP Policy Navigator (the tool): combined into one infrastructure. The project publishes the VPP Policy Framework, the standard the industry adopts, and builds the tools on it.

The project

The national alignment effort for VPP policy: 45+ organizations (utilities, DER operators, advocates, researchers, and state regulators) working from a shared framework, with Jigar Shah as Honorary Chair.

What Year 2 funds

Year 1 built the infrastructure. Year 2 funding keeps in place the team that built it and now runs it: [number pending] regulatory policy experts, technical writers, product designers, and researchers, and the reason 45 organizations are working from one map.

Deliverables

Delivered in Year 1: The VPP Policy Navigator
Year 2: v1 of the VPP Policy Map
Year 2: The Regulatory Design Library
Year 2: The Policy Dictionary

✓ delivered in Year 1 · → Year 2

Funders receive progress by state and by policy topic, on the PRL framework, so what their support advanced is visible.

About the Convergence Project

Workstreams

Where funding can be directed.

Year 2 funding can be earmarked for any of the project's four workstreams. Each is a self-contained tiger team with its own deliverables and state partners, and each sits on the PRL framework, so funding one advances the shared infrastructure.

VPP Regulatory Roadmap Tiger Team
Active · First engagement: Virginia (SB 233)
Building the VPP regulatory roadmap state by state. Deliverables include the Regulatory Roadmapping Manual.
Wholesale Market VPP Tiger Team
Active · Roadmap in development
A state roadmap for operationalizing FERC Order 2222. The deliverable becomes a template any state can use to navigate the same proceedings.
Large Load VPP Tiger Team
In development
A regulatory roadmap for the large-load VPP configurations that data center growth has made urgent, giving commissions a defensible structure for implementing them.
Utilities VPP Workgroup
In development
Where utilities apply the VPP Policy Framework to propose innovative VPP programs to their regulators.

Workstream scopes and budgets are detailed in the funder brief.

Discuss a workstream

Ways to engage

How investment is structured.

EPDI is seeking anchor partners for Year 2, and welcomes project grants and catalytic gifts alongside them.

Anchor and general operating support

For partners committing to the organization's capacity across Year 2 and beyond. The most valuable structure at this stage, and the one most directly tied to keeping the team and the project intact.

Project-based grants

For foundations evaluating specific initiatives. EPDI submits letters of inquiry and full proposals on standard timelines, with deliverables, milestones, and reporting structured around the funded initiative.

Catalytic gifts

For individuals and donor-advised funds supporting EPDI's growth phase, sized to the conversation. The most flexible structure for funders who want to move quickly.

How we operate

What funding builds.

EPDI is fiscally sponsored by Natural Capitalism Solutions, a 501(c)(3). Contributions are tax-deductible. The work is led by Ted Ko, Executive Director, with a team of regulatory policy experts, technical writers, product designers, and researchers.

The organization has proven its approach with a small team operating well beyond its resource base. Funding at this stage builds the staff, infrastructure, and sustained capacity the work has earned but doesn't yet have.

Get in touch

Start a conversation.

Direct outreach to Ted Ko, Executive Director. Most funder conversations begin with a 30-minute call: what you'd want to know, what we're building, where there's fit. We're working toward Year 2 commitments by the end of 2026.