Virtual power plant programs can be a cost-effective way to support a strained electric grid at a time when huge projected electric demand increases loom.
Just about every week, Shawn Grant, who works for Salt Lake City-based Rocky Mountain Power, gets an inquiry from another utility looking for information about the company’s Wattsmart battery program.
“We want to do something. … How did you guys do it?’” Grant, the company’s customer innovation manager, says he’s often asked. “We’re always fielding those questions.”
The program pays customers with solar who opt to install battery storage systems for the ability to use that stored electricity to help balance flows on the electric grid.
Route Fifty
By Robert Zullo,
New Jersey Monitor
APRIL 11, 2024