As a prototype, the Blatchford Virtual Power Plant (VPP) with 100 Sunen batteries launches throughout the community, which offers almost 0.5 MW of electricity and more than 2 MWh storage capacity to support the Canadian energy letter.
Landmark Homes, a specialist in sustainable housing, has built a new VPP in collaboration with Utility Epcor, Electricity Shops Solartility, Energy Storage Supplier Sonnen and the University of Alberta.
The energy storage in the VPP, supplied by Sonnen, offers the community and its residents a backup of emergency backup, daily management of peak energy consumption and demand response, in addition to other grid services.
VPPs are an aggregation of small-scale distributed energy sources, often including solar energy systems, electric vehicles (EVs), EV chargers and demand response devices, including boilers, thermostats and devices.
The VPP has been developed for Blatchford Lands, a master planned community in Edmonton, designed for the life of Net-Zero and a reduced footprint of the environment. Located on what was previously the municipal airport of Edmonton, the community now contains various housing options that are equipped with renewable energy sources for heating and cooling and is intended as a model for sustainable urban development.
The University of Alberta works together with the project team to model the potential effects of scaling the project and will help quantify the financial value, greenhouse gas reductions and scheduling benefits of this model.
As a prototype, the VPP of Blatchford starts with 100 Sonen batteries used throughout the community, which represent around 500 kW of assets and more than 2 MWh of storage capacity that will support the Canadian energy letter.
After this first implementation, Sonnen said that it is planning to launch VPPs in Alberta and in other Canadian regions, with the aim of using batteries on more than 3,000 individual sites, which will offer more than 18 MW/60 MWh to grid support in the coming 3 years.
“What has been achieved in Blatchford Lands is extremely special, and even outside many of the VPP market designs in America,” said Blake Richetta, chairman and CEO of Sonnen Inc. USA. “Sonnen is proudly behind our Canadian colleagues and customers, like our sister market, and as the nearest friends of the American people.”
The participants consider this Master Planned Community VPP project as a replicable model for communities in the province and throughout Canada, Sonen reported.
“Canada has developed into a rich and innovative VPP market thanks to the pioneering efforts and support of great partners,” said Geoff Ferrell, Senior Vice President – Global C&I and VPP Project Business by Sonnen Inc. USA.
Sonnen has experience in various VPPs in such communities, including in Soleil Lofts and Soleil Tech Park in Utah, Hunters Point in Cortez Florida and Mandalay Homes in Arizona.
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