As society moves away from centralised fossil fuel generators to increasing shares of distributed renewable energy resources, the idea that customers’ homes could become host to virtual power plants (VPPs), joining the dots between electricity supply and demand across the grid, has gradually gathered traction. Andy Colthorpe speaks with Suleman Khan CEO of Swell Energy, which has raised nearly half a billion dollars in financing for solar-plus-storage VPPs in 14,000 homes across California, New York and Hawaii.
Solar-plus-storage systems at customers’ homes in Hawaii will create a “comprehensive” virtual power plant (VPP) network on three Hawaiian islands of up to 6,000 individual systems.
A project which will combine and then assess four different types of non-lithium technologies for long-durations of energy storage has been awarded a grant by the California Energy Commission (CEC).
DERs interconnected with the grid position a utility to better manage peak demand, avoid transmission overloads and keep electricity flowing, but interconnection of battery, solar and other DERs is not without its challenges. Jason Allnutt from IEEE Standards Association discusses a standard that has become an “essential resource” for stakeholders.
Google is investing in battery energy storage to serve as a backup power solution at one of its data centres, in a project described as a first step in changing data centres “from climate change problems to critical components in carbon-free systems”.
Germany’s draft renewable energy laws, which the government is seeking to introduce next year, have been heavily criticised by energy storage systems association BVES.
Balancing the electricity supply system is not a simple task anywhere in the world, especially as more and more distributed energy resources come online. OpenADR can kick in, whenever the grid operator needs to reduce demand to keep the system stable. Aric Saunders of Electriq Power explains.
Energy storage technology provider and system integrator Fluence has acquired Advanced Microgrid Solutions, the California company known for its artificial intelligence (AI)-driven optimisation software platform for energy storage and flexible generation assets.
