SOLRITE Energy has established a new virtual power plant (VPP) offering in the Texas ERCOT market Sun.
Up to 60 kWh of solar energy storage per home can be included in the VPP agreement (VPA), receiving an “all-in” retail energy rate of 12¢ per kWh, all for a cost of $20 per month. The SOLRITE sonnen Battery VPA offering is limited to “deregulated utilities” in Texas, including Houston, Corpus Christi and McAllen.
Credit: sonnen
“SOLRITE’s new battery-only VPA product in Texas represents a significant milestone for the growing VPP market in America,” said Blake Richetta, chairman and CEO of sonnen Inc. USA. “Finally, the value of the VPP battery stands entirely on its own as a dispatchable grid balancing solution, through a deep grid services value stack, either added to an existing solar array or without solar altogether. It is through the robust VPP grid services value stack that the battery generates money, enabling the extraordinary 12¢ per kWh retail rate and 60 kWh of backup power for the end user. For $20 per month, this is 60 kWh product affordable to most Texas households. With this product, the vast majority of the cost of the VPP node is not borne by the end user, but instead paid by the Texas energy system for the value delivered.”
Retail electricity contracts in Texas typically last 12 to 36 months. Compensation for the injection of solar energy into the electric grid, also called a “Solar Buy-Back” in Texas, is offered as part of certain retail electricity plans. At the end of a specific electricity contract, Texas electricity suppliers are not required to continue offering a customer a Solar Buy-Back plan, as part of a new retail electricity contract. Therefore, in Texas, especially over time, it has become more difficult for electricity suppliers to pay near-retail prices for solar injection, which has resulted in Solar Buy-Backs gradually becoming less and less available in the marketplace, leaving tens of thousands of solar customers “stranded.”
These “solar orphans” are left on the hook to continue paying their solar PPA production payments or loan payments, despite no longer being compensated for their constant daily solar injection into the grid. The battery-only SOLRITE sonnen VPA offering allows orphaned solar customers to be compensated with their stored energy in a battery.
“Many Texans who invested in rooftop solar have been disappointed as shrinking buyback programs and unpredictable retail plans have eroded the promised savings,” explains Regan George, CEO and founder of SOLRITE Energy. “Our new battery-only VPA, powered by 60 kWh of solar storage, gives homeowners a way to capture their own energy and use it for real value.”
Taxpayers who do not want or cannot install rooftop solar can also sign up for the battery-only VPA while taking advantage of the 60 kWh of backup power, as well as the extremely attractive all-in electricity rate of 12¢ per kWh from SOLRITE-sonnen retail partner Abundance Energy. With a grid balancing capacity much greater than that of solar + battery VPP nodes, pure solar battery nodes – without rooftop solar – can function as a switchable load during times of excess generation in the grid. This innovative solution provides a form of reverse demand response for the electricity grid, absorbing excess energy generated during periods of low demand and shifting it to meet customer needs during peak periods of high grid congestion, effectively acting as a large, coordinated grid load shift.
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