Vermont has proved to be a interesting test bed for the energy transition because its utility is small enough to be nimble – Green Mountain Power was the first US utility to offer a state-approved, tariffed home battery lease program – and has a customer base eager to do things like install home batteries and give GMP authority to control them.
The result is a virtual power plant (batteries and devices that can be controlled remotely) that can be dispatched at up to 110 megawatts, making it the biggest power plant in the state. Electrek has the details in this story. A few tidbits:
Green Mountain Power’s virtual power plant cut an estimated $6 million from all customers’ peak electricity costs during Vermont’s early July heat wave. … Green Mountain Power dispatched 90 megawatts (MW) from its VPP. The network combines residential batteries, utility-scale storage, and other clean energy sources.
GMP says the 90 MW dispatch was roughly equivalent to taking 50,000 homes off the grid during the peak.
GMP’s virtual power plant now has 110 MW of capacity, making it Vermont’s largest single power resource by capacity, according to the utility. More than 5,000 GMP customers now have over 10,000 batteries enrolled in the VPP.
Of course, home batteries can also act as backup instead of a loud generator if power goes out. If you’ve got solar panels, they can shift excess sunny-day production to the evening, replacing expensive power draws from the grid.
