ARIMA11 wrote: https://www.pv-tech.org/vpps-to-save-us-utilities-up-to-us35-billion-in-next-decade/
https://www.brattle.com/real-reliability/
As distributed energy resources (DER) such as residential solar rooftop increase in the next decade, their aggregation into virtual power plants (VPP) could save US utilities up to US$35 billion, according to a study from consultancy The Brattle Group.
Solar residential rooftop is expected to reach a total capacity of 83GW in the US by the end of the decade, up from the current 27GW, while BTM batteries are expected to increase by more than tenfold from 2GW currently to 27GW in 2030, according to Brattle Group.
Several states have already implemented a programme around VPPs and the use of solar and or storage to help solve demand response, such as utility the Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), which is developing a 30MW solar-plus-storage VPP in order to address the summer net peak demand in California or a nearly 4MW behind-the-meter (BTM) battery VPP in Oregon, while Hawaii Electric Light Company (HECO) is expected to deploy an 80MW VPP with mainly solar-powered BTM batteries across 6,000 homes.
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4598680-eguana-technologies-inc-egtyf-q5-2022-earnings-call-transcript - VPP was mentioned 19 times.... Below is 18 instances....
Our thesis is larger residentially focused batteries will be required throughout a distributed grid to provide the infrastructure requirements for electrification and critically to have a power grid that can meet the requirements of the electric vehicle growth projections. The Eguana platform brings a number of competitive advantages to VPPs as the technology was originally developed as an advanced power control system for fuel cells for the German utility, RWE, and to provide all VPP function requirements that we are seeing today.
Several years ago, we took part in the virtual power plant pilot in Australia, where roughly 10 different systems from 10 different manufacturers were put head-to-head in a VPP environment. At the end of the pilot, only two systems perform to their specifications, and we're happy to say that one of them was the Eguana Evolve.
It is worth noting as VPP activity appears to be gaining momentum Eguana has taken part in many pilots with utilities over the past several years for a host of these VPP applications to be ready for this point in the power grid transition.
Today, we have developed the Eguana Cloud and are fully integrated with multiple aggregator platforms to provide VPP services for a fee. We expect recurring revenue stream from utilities and operators for access to the VPP services. Currently, we are engaged in VPP pilots in the U.S., Canada and Australia.
Although relatively small to start in the second half of 2023, the VPP should quickly become one of the largest parts of residential solar plus storage markets as utilities provide a number of subsidies and credits to homeowners to purchase and install energy storage systems simply by allowing assets from time-to-time. This is the beginning of the distributed grid transition.
So we think we've put the company at a competitive advantage for VPPs. We do believe that this will be the infrastructure requirements for a distributed grid, and we feel very strong about our position going into that market growth.
Another question coming, what role do VPPs play in augmenting demand and increasing adoption? We think that's going to play a critical role as we think that mass adoption will happen through the VPP rollouts.
That simplifies the selling process for installers, which will drive a significant jump in energy storage and micro inverter sales. We thought that the VPP market would be the biggest market out of the gate. It has taken longer than we had anticipated to start. However, with the VPP pilots we're currently working on, we're very excited to see what's going to happen second half of '23 and into '24, particularly because of the advancement of the Eguana Cloud and the ability to get recurring revenue out of each one of those systems that go into those virtual power plants.
We think that recurring revenue model growth will come through VPPs, and we had designed the Eguana Cloud specifically for those two applications.
But more importantly, it was to show the commitment of the organization to our utility partners Simply Energy to get the FCAS VPP going, which is in process right now as well as to attract Australian homebuilders to see that we could be a one-stop shop for the roof and the wall, if you will, which is the micro inverter at the energy storage system, because what we found is the homebuilders don't want to work with a host of renewable companies.