Sunrun announced that its CalReady power plant has been activated to support California’s electric grid during the recent heat wave. Batteries from the solar and storage systems of more than 16,000 Sunrun customers provided power during peak hours for four consecutive evenings from July 9 to 12.
Sunrun customers’ batteries supplied the grid with an average of 48 MW per night, enough to power 48,000 homes – a city the size of Santa Monica – and peaked at 51 MW, exceeding the capacity of several expensive and polluting gas-fired peaker power stations. factories in California. Home solar and battery systems modernize, transform and strengthen the electrical grid.
“We are so grateful that we can not only offer customers a greater sense of energy independence, resiliency and affordability, but that those same systems can support our communities to make California’s power grid more reliable – especially as scorching heat puts additional strain on this grid. summer,” said Mary Powell, CEO of Sunrun. “By sharing their stored solar energy, Sunrun customers boost energy security, reduce energy costs for all Californians and prevent rolling power outages.”
Sunrun’s CalReady is the largest single-owner virtual power plant in the state’s Demand Side Grid Support program, administered by the California Energy Commission. CalReady is available every day from 4:00 PM to 9:00 PM through October to support California’s electric grid. This is the time of day and season when energy demand is greatest and the electricity grid is most vulnerable to disruptions. Sunrun customers enrolled in CalReady are compensated for sharing their stored solar energy and Sunrun is paid for shipping the batteries.
News item from Sunrun
