The Vermont Public Utility Commission (VPUC) has issued an order approving the expansion of Green Mountain Power’s Tesla Powerwall and Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) home battery pilot programs into full-fledged residential battery programs.
The BYOD program is an open incentive system for customers looking to add a battery, while the Powerwall program allows customers to lease a system at a flat rate that provides savings over a standard installation.
The BYOD program offers customers up to $10,500 in upfront incentives to purchase their own batteries through local installers. The program is set to support at least 500 customers annually, until the 5 MW yearly storage cap is reached. Under this program, participating customers agree to provide access to stored energy during peak demand times, in order to meet demand and drive down the price of electricity. Moreover, the customers have a relatively expansive list of participating battery options to choose from.
The Powerwall tariff allows up to 500 customers to enroll each year, where they can choose to pay $55 per month for two Powerwall batteries in a 10-year lease which covers standard installation, with the option of five more years at no additional cost or just pay $5,500 up front. Akin to the BYOD program, customers agree to share their stored energy with GMP during peak deman times.
According to the utility, the BYOD and Powerwall programs will create millions of dollars in savings for all GMP customers.
Enrollment for the incentives start June 5th and both tariffs will be in place for the next two years, at which point they will be reviewed by the VPUC.
Customers can enroll directly with REV members or, starting on June 5, customers can begin the enrollment process through GMP’s webpage.
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I kind of like the new Enphase program to be released as IQ8, of being able to control the system’s generation output to the grid as well as take control for “critical circuit” loads in one’s home during power outages. Self sufficiency is more important to me than being a “grid services” provider.
Why you say? The continuing “operations” of electric utilities will always be “programs” designed to benefit them no matter what the cost is to YOU. If one is going to install solar PV and energy storage, the priority should be to the one who buys, installs and uses the technology above and beyond what the utility “determines” what is “fair and equitable”.
I see this as a race, the technology is available and at the residential and small business level, is becoming more affordable with every new product line introduced. The rote electric utilities will adopt the technology to enhance, upgrade and harden the grid or the individual will create the “energy firewall” between what the utility “promises” and what it actually does. The adage still rings true, “Money talks, B.S. walks.”
$50.00 per month for a 10 year lease is $6,000. Will the customers get their moneys worth with Net Metering? If they pay you more for energy you deliver back at night or at peak times, is that equal to the $50.00 or more? Each power wall has 14 kilo watt hours of storage, 12 kilo watts usable or 24 kilo watts of maximum usable power per day that could be stored using your excess solar output then released after hours. Most will program the use at 50% of capacity to allow for black outs or appliance surges on their own systrms. So, 12 kilo watts per day at $ ???? per kilowatt hour or 360 kilo watt hours per month. If the “differance” is 6 cents per kilo watt hour from peak demand to low demand and you could sell all 360 kilo watt hours and your take would be $21.60 per month from the utility that has net Metering PLUS, but then, you need to pay $50.00 to the leasor for the batteries. However if the differance is 16 cents per kilo watt hour, you would get back $57.60 from the utility and that could pay for your lease plus give you battery back up. Run the numbers because the return on your money, even at the 16 cent differance, would only gain you $912 00 over 10 years on your $6,000.00 investment and you would own nothing because they take back the system or the batteries would be at the end of their 10 year expected life. If you have multiple “Black outs” a year and you lose a lot of food when the refrigeration goes down and the system they are offering has a transfer switch and self gnerating sine wave outputs, then you might want the system but from what I have read, you get none of that in your system. You pay and they get the benefit.
An off Grid system with batteries and invertes cost 16 cents per kilo watt hour generated, stored and used after all expences. If you pay less than 16 cents per kilo watt hour, the system is only worth it if your grid is unreliable. If your utility charges charges more than 16 cents per kilo watt hour, then an off grid battery system might be worth the power and back up. My utility charges 30 cents per kilo watt hour and up based on time of day or how much power you use in a month and shuts down for as long a week at a time durring fire season.
Thanks for highlighting this program Tim! BYOD programs foreshadow what’s to come in many more markets and their popularity highlight the fact that consumers want more choices. The emerging Energy Cloud Platforms that aggregate Distributed Energy Resources (DERs), will provide added consumer choice with the ability to opt-in, if one wishes when called on.
The killer app is integrating appliance load control with battery storage as it creates additional value streams in any rate tariff market.
1. Load control + intelligent energy management saves money (10%-40%) with or without solar or a battery
2. Enhances Demand Response (DR) by having more appliances able to participate in DR events, and in a coordinated fashion, results in more savings while supporting the grid.
3. Creates a Digital Loads Panel – When the grid does go out, provides for maximum flexibility in selecting critical loads, which loads do you really want to run off your battery, rather than being limited to 2-4 hard wired circuits. (requires appropriate system design) Especially important for those in markets like CA with planned PSPS events to limit fire danger.
4. “future-proofs” PV+ battery investments – Optimizes systems in response to evolving rate tariffs, changing consumption patterns, and utility programs
As more homes and business produce, store and control their own energy, the energy cloud becomes a transactive and participatory marketplace. Idea being, we use the grid to share and transact our energy as prosumers rather than rate paying consumers, and everyone wins!
There is a LEEDs development builder in Arizona, Mandalay homes. These developed housing communities will have solar PV and a smart ESS installed at each home. Mandalay is using smart home technology and to interface to that, is using Sonnen ecolinx 20.0 ESS in every home’s garage. The Sonnen is high end and has the batteries, BMS, HMI, hybrid inverter with smart home communications all in one package. It has smart home energy control algorithms programmed into the hybrid inverter and the HMI, the HMI is the interface to program the ESS for best use. This system at development build out will represent a 30MWh to 40MWh aggregate energy storage system for the housing tract.
I’ve read about developments in Texas doing the same thing. In Utah there is one development that is apartments that have their own solar PV and ESS in each apartment. Just sayin’, typical commercial properties like condominiums, apartments are starting to build solar PV and ESS as part of the overall plans.