Utah solar installer ES Solar will work with battery maker sonnen to establish a virtual power plant for Rocky Mountain Power.
As part of RMP’s Wattsmart Battery Program, existing solar customers can add a sonnen battery to help the utility better manage grid resources.
“The path to a sustainable energy future requires the ability to integrate increasing amounts of renewables,” said Bill Comeau, VP of Customer Experience at Rocky Mountain Power. “Through this innovative partnership, our 50,000 customers with rooftop solar can now be part of the solution for a sustainable grid of the future for the benefit of all.”
After years of building and testing a Battery Grid Management System (BGMS) utilizing sonnen’s virtual power plant software, RMP launched the Wattsmart Battery program in 2021. In response to the launch of Wattsmart, ES Solar created a new business model to ensure rooftop solar systems are equipped with batteries controlled by the local utility for the greater operation of the grid, removing many of the grid integration issues inherent with existing stand-alone rooftop solar systems.
“Our evolution at ES Solar revolves around the idea that a smarter grid requires intelligent batteries paired with solar,” said Nic Evans, Vice President of Commercial at ES Solar. “We are committed to delivering customers solutions for a sustainable dynamic renewable energy grid.”
At this time, only sonnen batteries have been approved for the Wattsmart program.
News item from ES Solar
” In response to the launch of Wattsmart, ES Solar created a new business model to ensure rooftop solar systems are equipped with batteries controlled by the local utility for the greater operation of the grid, removing many of the grid integration issues inherent with existing stand-alone rooftop solar systems.”
The new business model pundit is suspicious when all is said and done the statement, “….controlled by the local utility for greater operation of the grid…”, the mentioned “…grid integration (issues)..”, are taken care of when one has their own solar PV and smart ESS system installed at their home. It is the prospect of the local utility “controlling” the homeowner’s residential system is the point of concern. The utility will ‘not operate’ these residential systems to the homeowner’s benefit, it will be to the local utility’s benefit. When a residential ratepayer installs their own solar PV system and plus energy storage, the utility is now enjoying “avoided costs” of the costs of, purchasing, installing, maintaining, insuring a distributed energy generation resource, while “controlling” the asset as if it was a utility asset.
It’s time for the residential homeowner to get smart, if one has all of this generation and energy storage asset available for their daily energy needs, then just program the smart Sonnen system to capture more energy for the battery pack to use at night to clip the local utility’s practice of TOU rate spiking periods and capacity demand charges using ‘your’ energy storage system without utility ‘control’ required.