virtual power plants

The success of unsubsidized clean power facilities in the country – whether driven by corporate power purchase agreements or selling direct to the wholesale electricity market – has prompted the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy to ponder whether contracts-for-difference payments will be fit for purpose in the years ahead.

Hong Kong-owned UK Power Networks is aiming to commission 250 MW of grid flexibility from energy storage assets with capacities as small as 10 kW, on contracts ranging in length from six months to seven years.

The Japanese tech giant and German power company have followed the lead of General Electric by promising not to take on any new coal power station contracts.

How can you get the gigawatts of distributed solar generation in the WA South West Interconnected System to play nicely with the network? Western Power has gathered 100 MW of resource to test its coordinated ability to stabilize the system on low-demand days.

The annual EU PVSEC conference got under way virtually this morning via an online platform since the planned event in Lisbon could not go ahead due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Opening presentations revealed an air of optimism in the PV industry, amid expectations of a rapidly rising share in the energy mix, growing conversion efficiencies, advancing technology pathways and innovative solutions to the problem of integrating high levels of PV into electricity grids.

With its sonnenVPP, German battery company Sonnen wants to improve the efficiency of virtual power plants which it says can offer primary balancing energy from houses with solar and storage and can operate up to 90% more cost-effectively.

German energy agency Dena has found China’s smelter fleet could shift 432.5 GWh of daily demand to more amenable hours to tally with renewables generation. To make it happen though, the regulator needs to lay down rules for providing incentives.

The scheme will test the potential of distributed energy resources such as rooftop systems, battery storage and controllable load devices aggregated into VPPs to provide scalable energy and network services traditionally performed by large scale, conventional electricity generators. With registration open, the Australian Energy Market Operator wants VPPs to register to accelerate shared learning.

IHS Markit’s analysts have mapped out what they are keeping an eye out for in the year ahead. Aside from higher installation figures, the number-crunchers predict a continued battle for multi-function in the hard-fought inverter segment and a potential watershed year for utility-scale storage.

The Japanese trading firm has started selling its new Smart Star L lithium-ion storage battery system for the Japanese residential PV market. It has designed the system in cooperation with Yokohama-based manufacturer NF Corp.