A virtual power plant (VPP) is a smart grid network that links retail markets to wholesale markets. The primary goal of a VPP is to achieve the greatest profit for distributed energy resources (DER) asset owners while maintaining the proper balance of the electricity grid at the lowest economic and environmental cost. This report ranks vendors active in the VPP space that offer software services. Software is a broad category, as it includes both systems that connect DER in order to optimize synergies between like and unlike resources and the interface mechanics of interacting with utilities and wholesale markets for ancillary service sales. Software spending is expected to represent nearly 90% of total VPP implementation spending by 2025?excluding spending on energy storage systems being wrapped into VPPs. Perhaps the most foretelling trend with VPPs is the sudden surge in energy storage deployments being aggregated into VPPs, tilting the market in new directions. The types of companies included in this Leaderboard Report range from large and familiar smart grid technology companies (ABB, GE, and Siemens) to small pure-play software innovators (AutoGrid, Enbala Networks, and Viridity Energy). It also includes companies focused on optimizing energy storage devices through fleet aggregation software products and services (Advanced Microgrid Solutions, Green Charge Networks, and Sunverge). This Navigant Research Leaderboard Report examines the strategy and execution of 15 leading VPP software vendors. These players are rated on 12 criteria: vision; go-to market strategy; partners; products integration strategy, technology scope; geographic reach; sales, marketing, and distribution; product performance; product quality and reliability; project portfolio; pricing; and staying power. Using Navigant Research?s proprietary Leaderboard methodology, VPP software vendors are profiled, rated, and ranked with the goal of providing an objective assessment of their relative strengths and weaknesses in the global VPP market.