Sunrun teams with Lunar Gridshare to operate VPP network

Sunrun, the largest solar and battery installer in the United States, is becoming synonymous with virtual power plants (VPPs) — tapping into its network of home solar + storage systems to export energy when the grid needs it. This week, Sunrun announced a partnership with Lunar Gridshare to operate
that nationwide VPP network.

“We are thrilled with the work of Lunar Gridshare,” stated Mary Powell, Sunrun CEO. “What Lunar Gridshare has been able to accomplish in managing multiple devices from several different manufacturers at the same time, is a game changer for us. To build the grid of the future, it is so powerful to be able to
flawlessly orchestrate all the various distributed energy technologies in our customers’ homes.”

Lunar Gridshare is a cloud-based software platform for distributed energy resources (DER), enabling connected, smart, all-electric homes at scale. Using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), Gridshare optimizes DER behavior to save customers money, reduces carbon emissions and prepare homes for incoming storms.

Sunrun started working with Gridshare last year. Lunar’s CEO Kunal Girotra noted the following results on the company’s blog:

In a program from Hawaiian Electric Company, the VPP had to supply power to the grid when needed, but it also had to provide Fast Frequency Response, which requires adding or removing power from the grid with only a few seconds’ notice. Gridshare performed both of these functions with 100% uptime with a fleet made up of batteries from several different manufacturers.

In a separate program from Southern California Edison (SCE), Gridshare delivered 60% more energy from a Sunrun VPP than previously possible. For VPPs, it’s critical to know how much energy could be used from the fleet at any moment. Gridshare evaluates and forecasts factors such as weather, energy consumption, and solar generation and predicts available energy at the device level. That precision at the device level compounds at the fleet level and gets as much energy as possible into the VPP.

Today, Gridshare operates a fleet of batteries from many different manufacturers. More than 35,000 home batteries are connected to Gridshare in Japan, for example, and another 1,600 in Europe. Lunar Energy also plans to debut its own battery in the coming months, which will be intimately connected to the Gridshare software. Homes will be able to enroll in VPP programs directly from their app.

— Solar Builder magazine

[source: https://solarbuildermag.com/news/sunrun-teams-with-lunar-gridshare-to-operate-vpp-network/]