Largest virtual power plant in US will provide cheap electricity in the face of extreme heat: ‘Greater resilience for all’

California is home to the nation’s largest virtual power plant, which is expected to play a key role in supporting the state’s power grid during the hot summer months.

Electrek reported that Sunrun, a solar and storage company, has created a virtual power plant called CalReady that combines customers’ solar and storage systems to meet grid demand, reduce the risk of rolling blackouts and lower electricity costs.

Virtual power plants consist of small energy resources, such as solar panels. Hundreds to thousands of homes can be connected to provide power like a traditional power plant. However, this type of system uses stored renewable energy.

Sunrun’s Peak Power Rewards program launched in 2023 in partnership with Pacific Gas and Electric Company. Sunrun encouraged 8,500 customers with a $750 reward to share their stored energy with the grid from August to October from 7-9 p.m.

The first-of-its-kind collaboration comes after California’s record-breaking 2022 heat wave, which saw temperatures reach 30 degrees Fahrenheit in Long Beach and 116 degrees in Sakremento, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Extreme heat has strained energy infrastructure, so Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a state of emergency proclamation to encourage energy providers to take action. This led to the California Public Utilities Commission issuing “Energy Efficiency Actions to Increase Electric Reliability in Summer 2022 and 2023,” which led to a partnership between Sunrun and PG&E.

The first year of the program was a success. The residential storage system delivered an average of 27 megawatts of power during peak hours over 90 days. At certain peaks, it provided enough energy to power over 20,000 households.

However, this was not the first virtual residential power plant. Sunrun launched such a program in New England in 2022. The program delivered more than 1.8 gigawatt hours of power to the grid and ran from June to August from 1 to 5 p.m.

This year’s CalReady plant has nearly doubled in size and will operate from May through October, covering 16,200 homes equipped with solar energy storage systems. According to Electrek, the virtual power plant will be available to operate the network from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. and is expected to be used up to 35 times.

“The typical customer won’t even notice that they’re sharing stored energy to strengthen the grid while getting paid for it,” Sunrun CEO Mary Powell said, according to this news outlet.

“By sharing clean solar energy, they make California’s grid more resilient for the benefit of all,” Powell added in a statement.

Facing rolling power outages, the aging traditional power grid has shown it is struggling to cope with rising temperatures and extreme weather. Solar storage not only increases grid resilience, but also reduces the need to rely on gas and oil.

Reducing our reliance on dirty fuel power plants means we can reduce the amount of polluting gases in the atmosphere, improving air quality for communities. This can reduce the risk of pollution-related problems such as heart disease, lung cancer, stroke, respiratory disease and asthma.

Using solar energy can also save you money. In fact, solar panels can save you around $1,500 per year. According to Greenlancer, they can even increase the value of your home by about $9,000.

As of May, Sunrun’s CalReady program continued to enroll participants on an ongoing basis, and there is still time for more homes to benefit from a California power grid that can withstand heat while reducing emissions of polluting gases and saving or making money in the process.

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