Puget Sound Energy (PSE) has selected the Sunverge platform to test the integration of battery storage technology as part of its Smart Grid demonstration efforts. The Smart Grid is designed to help customers save money and energy, while helping PSE improve grid reliability and reduce its carbon footprint. Sunverge is an open platform for creating a grid-aware energy source from fleets of behind-the-meter Distributed Energy Resources (DERs).
The Sunverge platform provides co-optimization of services on both sides of the meter, giving customers backup power, increased power quality and reduced energy bills, while maximizing their solar self consumption, where applicable. This provides utilities with the ability to operationalize fleets of DERs for grid services that provide distribution feeder resiliency and operational efficiency, all while creating a smarter and more resilient grid.
“We selected Sunverge for its experience with behind-the-meter distributed energy sources, and our desire to partner with an expert service provider committed to helping us achieve our battery storage demonstration goals,” said Ben Farrow, manager of new products and services at PSE. “These batteries can help by giving our customers reliable backup power, while providing us with the ability to learn more about operational capabilities and efficiencies of energy storage on our distribution grid.”
Farrow added, “By gaining experience with battery storage on our grid, we hope to expand this technology to benefit all customers in the future.”
The Sunverge Energy Platform monitors, controls and can consolidate behind-the-meter DERs such as solar PV energy, energy storage systems, smart thermostats, electric vehicle (EV) chargers and other smart controllable loads into near real-time, grid-aware and dynamic resources that utilities can integrate into their traditional grid assets and core grid operations. The Sunverge platform can integrate directly with Advanced Distribution Management Systems (ADMS), providing grid level services to distributed systems operations and planning groups. PSE will be leveraging the Sunverge Energy Platform to provide an initial testbed of customers with new battery energy storage programs and to extend the capacity and reliability of their existing distribution grid infrastructure investments.
“Our technology is helping utilities modernize the grid and better engage with their customers,” said Martin Milani, CEO of Sunverge. “DERs and virtual power plant technologies are becoming a key component in many utilities’ future planning. Increasingly, it will be a required capability to achieving the optimal mix of traditional infrastructure, renewables integration, grid modernization, resiliency and cost-effective demand side management efforts and programs.”
News item from Sunverge Energy
Solarman says
Don’t you just love it, when something NEW comes along in an industry that is solidly entrenched in 100 year old, generation and distribution technology. The new buzz words for the future of energy generation, distribution and use, “self consumption” for those who pay it forward and purchase their own solar PV and or wind generation systems with battery storage. Then overall “virtual power plant”, the distributed energy storage along the grid that can be used to store ANY generation resource for later demand use.