We need to look closer at our home based battery systems, says Governing website. Its chosen role is to assist public leaders to manage the present, and anticipate the future of state and local government. Therefore we ought to take it seriously when it speaks of combining individual battery storage into virtual power plants. Because it believes there are enough resources already to stabilize grid power supply.
Modules in Place for Virtual Power Plants
Governing website has a novel take on domestic and commercial solar battery storage packs. They are not only there to serve their owners during power outages, it says. That’s because they can also sell their solar energy to the grid, in exchange for a discount on their electricity bills.
Virtual power plants take this opportunity to a new level, the website continues. It explores a new concept of joining individual solar batteries up to the point, where the collective is sufficiently powerful to make a difference, when the day is hot and the energy demand is high.
A New Recipe for the Grid of the Future
‘The purpose of a home-based battery shouldn’t be to just sit there all year until there’s a power outage,’ say proponents of the scheme. Instead, that battery can be a building block for serving the entire grid, the CEO of a major contributor told Governing website.
Such mini-grid virtual power plants are already making their presence felt in the United States. Take the Rocky Mountain Power utility, for example, where over 3,000 customers have already signed up. Although, California’s Pacific Gas & Electric is in the process of recruiting twice that number of partners.
However, we are still in the early stages of this new technology, and only just beginning to see the fruits. It is unlikely to ever compete with solar farms at this stage. But the technology could certainly help keep the lights on during peaks, and that is essential for green energy to gain credibility.
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