Utah is not perhaps a US state people would immediately associate with cutting edge clean energy tech development, but that’s where sonnen’s virtual power plant (VPP) offering took shape.
Up to US$16,000 in upfront incentives are available per customer for residential battery purchases in Connecticut after changes were made to a utility scheme in the US state.
Jennifer Downing, senior advisor to the Loan Programs Office at the US Department of Energy (DOE) and author of a recent report into virtual power plant technology, speaks to Energy-Storage.news.
The versatility of battery storage to provide a broad range of services makes them “particularly valuable” to virtual power plants (VPPs), according to a senior advisor to the US Department of Energy (DOE).
A US$10.5 billion programme to “strengthen grid resilience and reliability” across the US includes funding for microgrids and other projects that will integrate battery storage technologies.
Enel has revealed the role its digital and distributed technology arm is playing in a European Union-funded project to simplify integration of energy storage systems.
As distributed energy resources such as residential solar rooftop increase in the next decade, aggregation into virtual power plants could save US utilities up to US$35 billion, according to The Brattle Group.