Leading US solar company SunPower has this week announced the launch of its Virtual Power Plant solution which allows participants with energy storage to get paid for allowing their local utility to use stored energy during peak demand.
SunPower announced on Tuesday that the company’s SunVault energy storage customers served by Eversource and National Grid in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, would be able to enroll in its first virtual power plant (VPP) offering, ConnectedSolutions.
Initially, participation will run during their local utilities’ VPP season, which will run from June through September each year – during America’s Summer and one month into Autumn.
SunPower expects that participants will be able to earn hundreds of dollars each year in exchange for allowing their local utility to discharge their battery during times of peak energy demand.
Virtual power plants are not a new idea, and basically refer to the idea of using a network of individual consumer batteries – such as the Tesla Powerwall – as if the network were a standalone large-scale battery. When connected in this way, it doesn’t matter if the batteries are all housed together in one single storage container or on a large-scale battery farm, or whether they are spread across a street’s worth of houses.
Virtual power plants can then act just like a regular battery, providing additional power and grid stability during peak demand, such as when the weather turns hot, and everyone turns on their air conditioners.
Moreover, considering that residential batteries are almost always tied in with rooftop solar generation, virtual power plants such these provide utilities with reliable access to clean electricity.
“With battery storage, homeowners gain energy independence and control for their household, even as blackouts and power shut-offs increase,” said Peter Faricy, CEO of SunPower.
“Now with the SunPower VPP, our customers can choose to participate in programs that will help stabilize the grid for their community while simultaneously offsetting the cost of their system. Citizens and utilities working together to provide reliable and renewable energy is the future of the grid.”
SunPower’s VPP will coordinate the charge and discharge of participating customers’ batteries and share electricity on their behalf to the utility while reserve some electricity in reserve for backup power to the home when needed.
Customers will be notified prior to the battery discharging and can choose to bypass or pre-set their system so their personal backup does not fall below a certain level.
SunPower’s SunVault energy storage system is available in 13kWh and 26kWh sizes and is compatible with SunPower Equinox rooftop solar systems. Using lithium iron phosphate battery chemistry and flexible configuration, installation requires only two “sleek” boxes and is able to seamlessly detect all utility disruptions and switch automatically to backup.
