NRG Energy, through its retail electricity provider Reliant, will accept new and existing Sunrun customers to its virtual power plant (VPP) setup in Texas.
Credit: Carhartt/Sunrun
Sunrun and NRG Energy have entered into a multi-year partnership to accelerate the adoption of distributed energy, including home battery storage, delivering dispatchable capacity to meet the state’s surging energy demand.
“This partnership is a major step in achieving our goal of creating a 1-GW virtual power plant by 2035,” said Brad Bentley, NRG Energy EVP and president of NRG Consumer. “Texas is growing fast, and our electricity supply must keep pace. By teaming up with Sunrun, we’re unlocking a new source of dispatchable, flexible energy while giving customers the opportunity to unlock value from their homes and contribute to a more resilient grid.”
Texas residents in Reliant territory can pair Sunrun solar and storage systems with optimized rate plans and smart battery programming. As new and existing Sunrun customers enroll with Reliant, the cumulative capacity will be available to help meet increased demand in the ERCOT market.
“This partnership demonstrates the scale and strength of Sunrun’s storage and solar distributed power plant assets,” said Sunrun CEO Mary Powell. “We are delivering critical energy infrastructure that gives Texas families affordable, resilient power and builds a reliable, flexible power plant for the grid.”
Together, the companies will be developing offers to aggregate and dispatch these distributed power assets to provide electricity to Texas’s grid during periods of peak demand. Sunrun will be paid for aggregating the capacity and participating Reliant customers will be compensated by Sunrun for sharing their stored solar energy.
News item from Sunrun
