Tesla Powerwalls is expected to design a giant new virtual power station designed by Swell Energy in Hawaii.
In combination with solar power, the battery packs will create an 80 MW / 100 MWh distributed energy system.
Virtual power station
A virtual power station consists of connecting several small distributed energy assets, such as residential solar panel systems and home battery packs, and using them together to provide larger network services.
By combining all the capacity, you can manage it more efficiently and possibly retire fossil fuel plants faster.
The concept has become more popular in recent years with the advent of home battery packs such as the Tesla Powerwall.
One of the best known virtual power station projects is in South Australia, where Tesla has announced that it has entered into an agreement with the government to install solar power plants and Powerwalls on up to 50,000 homes.
Swell’s VPP with Tesla Powerwall in Hawaii
Swell Energy is a long-standing Tesla installation partner for the Powerwall, and they are already running several virtual power station (VPP) projects with Tesla Powerwalls.
The company announced today that it has reached a new massive VPP project with the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission (PUC):
Swell Energy, Inc. announced today that the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission (PUC) has approved its $ 25 million contract with Hawaiian Electric for the provision of various network services through a composite “virtual power station” (VPP) on three islands. “Swell Energy, a provider of energy and smart grid solutions in California, will deploy solar power batteries behind the meter to approximately 6,000 residential customers to create a comprehensive VPP on the islands of Oahu, Maui and Hawaii.”
Suleman Khan, CEO of Swell Energy, commented on the announcement:
An agreement of this magnitude and scope was needed to support Hawaiian Electric’s clean energy goals across the three islands. Providing this level of capacity and ancillary services sets a new standard for virtual power stations and builds on Swell Energy’s deployments across the continent of the United States. This fleet of transmissible energy sources benefits the utility industry and enables customers to save money and come together to form a more resilient network, ‘
This new project will join Swell’s other VPP projects, such as those in Orange County, Santa Barbara and Redwood Coast, all of which also use Tesla Powerwalls, but it is expected to become its largest virtual power station to date.
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