Haven Energy, a residential solar and battery installer, is partnering with Clean Energy Alliance (CEA), a community choice aggregator, to enroll households that qualify for California’s Self-Generation Incentive Program Residential Solar & Storage Equity (SGIP RSSE) in CEA’s Battery Bonus Connect virtual power plant (VPP) program.
A VPP is a virtual aggregation of small-scale, distributed energy resources. Along with energy storage, VPPs include vehicle chargers and demand-responsive devices such as water heaters, thermostats and appliances. A VPP can help stabilize the grid during periods of high demand, such as in the summer when air conditioners are running.
Haven and CEA said that by participating in this program, homeowners can expect 20% of their battery capacity to always be reserved for backup power, “ensuring reliability while maximizing bill savings.”
Community choice aggregation allows towns to procure power on behalf of its residents, businesses and municipal accounts from an alternative supplier. Homeowners may apply to take part in the Battery Bonus Connect program who are enrolled in a CEA community choice aggregation program in Carlsbad, Del Mar, Solana Beach, Escondido, Oceanside, San Marcos and Vista.
CEA anticipates that approximately 300 qualifying homeowners will be able to participate in the VPP. While the homeowners must qualify for the state’s SGIP program, Jeff Chapin, co-founder of Haven Energy told pv magazine USA that Haven will further qualify the customer to ensure they meet all of the requirements to be eligible for the SGIP program.
“Haven collects all the necessary documentation to ensure homeowner qualification for SGIP, designs a battery system that meets home’s needs and is compatible with the existing electrical setup and submits the system overview and homeowner documentation to SGIP for rebate approval,” Chapin said.
The way the SGIP program works is that the rebate is available after the application process is complete and the technology is installed; however, Haven Energy will cover those costs for those in the Battery Bonus program, and then Haven will realize the rebate.
In addition to being a CEA residential customer in order to participate in the Battery Bonus Connect program, homeowners must also participate in CEA’s PeakSmart Savers program, CEA’s demand response program.
“By installing and aggregating the customer-sited battery systems into a VPP, we will also reduce grid congestion, lower our reliance on fossil fuels, and accelerate California’s optimization of renewables,” said Chapin. “Rather than sending surplus solar electricity to the grid in the middle of the day, we will store that electricity in the battery systems and discharge it during evening peak demand, reducing the need for natural gas generation.”
Haven Energy’s role in the program is to install the batteries and manage enrollment and participation. Haven typically installs either a Franklin aPower2 or Tesla Powerwall 3 batteries that have a 13.5 kWh to 15 kWh of available storage, Chapin said.
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