But "PP"s, that is, normal power plants that aren't compromised of DERs, are not going to partake in this shift of the term from meaning "generation" to meaning "generation or load shedding". So you end up with "power plants" that everyone understands are suppliers of power and "virtual power plants" that are, confusingly, a mix of demand reduction and maybe some supply.

So I agree that the VPP terminology leaves a lot to be desired. I prefer the more generic "DER" terminology, because it is more descriptive; either a generator or a load is an "energy resource", and "distributed" is a good description of what is unique about these particular energy resources.