Australian solar company joins virtual power plant push

• Solar Service Group to market energy app to more than 8,000 battery users.

Australian owners of more than 8,000 solar energy storage batteries will soon become the latest target of efforts to create virtual power plants.

The battery owners are customers of Australian company Solar Service Group (Solar SG), which provides solar energy batteries such as the Tesla Powerwall and Enphase.

Early this year, it will start marketing the subscription-based energy optimisation app from Australian company Evergen to its customers. Evergen can connect users’ batteries to create virtual power plants, which allow households to trade excess energy and adjust energy usage to take advantage of changes in the price of energy.

Evergen was formed through a collaboration between AMP Capital and the CSIRO, and its energy management platform uses CSIRO-developed algorithms.

Evergen sells its own solar energy package, which includes solar panels, a battery and an energy management system. But Evergen CEO and Managing Director Ben Hutt sees a way to reach a larger market by partnering with Solar Service Group.

“Blending Solar SG’s excellence in research and marketing and national deployed fleet together with Evergen’s software, this will be the biggest single fleet of batteries globally,” Hutt stated.

Other companies currently or previously engaged in virtual power plant initiatives include AGL, Ausgrid, Origin Energy, Power Ledger, Tesla and the South Australian Government.

Global ambitions

Evergen also recently signed an agreement to have its software distributed by South African battery distributor Midnight Sun Energy Storage Systems.

Evergen will enable virtual power plants and microgrids in South Africa, mainly for large new housing developments and communities, Hutt stated.