Virtual Power Plants (VPPs) are essentially the same thing as the Distributed Energy Resource Aggregators (DERAs) I mentioned above. I guess a VPP is technically a more general term and could also refer to the same concept under different structures like in a micro grid.

The industry has a ton of jargon (literally thousands of acronyms amongst the US regional markets) and in many cases there are 8 terms that mean the exact same thing.

Not sure I follow but seems like a weird thing to mention. The DERA is the who, the VPP is the what. Similar but far from essentially the same thing.

The DERA is frequently discussed as being both the market entity as well as the collective what. Language is weird.

To be honest I cannot even understand what you are saying. DERA is the who. VPP is the what.

I'm saying the language isn't so cut and dry. People commonly refer to both the who and the what (to use your terms) as the DERA.