Sunrun will set up 17-MW VPP on Puerto Rico for PREPA

• Puerto Rico's sole electric utility service provider, Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA), has actually chosen Sunrun as the installation firm and also battery supplier for the island's first virtual power plant (VPP). The 17-MW VPP will certainly network together more than 7,000 Sunrun solar + storage space systems installed on homes.

" Puerto Ricans are ready to make the transfer to reliable independent clean energy remedies that will certainly enhance their sense of safety and security in their very own homes," stated Sunrun CEO Mary Powell. "We're solving energy insecurity on the island by changing the version so that solar energy is created on roofs and saved in batteries to power each home, and then shared with neighbors, producing a clean shared energy economy. That way, residents not just have control over their energy in the house, but can additionally share power with their community and be compensated for it."

Sunrun will certainly spend the following year enrolling consumers into the program and start networked dispatches in 2024. Clients will certainly gain from the expense savings of on-site energy generation and backup power and will certainly also be compensated for tactically sharing their saved energy with Puerto Rico's power grid, producing a shared clean energy economy. Batteries signed up in the VPP will certainly proceed preserving appropriate backup gets to power via possible grid outages at individuals' homes. All consumers with batteries are also qualified to enroll as well as can pull out at any type of factor during the 10-year program.

In 2019, two years after Hurricane Maria took down the island's electrical grid, the Puerto Rico Energy Public Policy Act was gone by the Legislature to set the parameters for a positive energy system that maximizes distributed generation. The Puerto Rico Energy Bureau (PREB) determined that VPPs were key to achieving the legislation's goals of developing a resilient and also robust energy system as well as meeting Puerto Rico's renewable portfolio criteria.

Coupled with enhancing utility rates-- a few of the highest in the USA-- and also reliance on the old, badly maintained fossil fuel power plants, Puerto Rico has seen a transformational shift far from an unreliable energy system, with tens of hundreds of Puerto Ricans currently with rooftop solar as well as batteries. Earlier this fall, Hurricane Fiona knocked out the island's power grid, leaving more than three million residents in the dark. Sunrun consumers on the island were able to power with the expanded outages. Sunrun solar + battery systems provided greater than 350,000 hrs of backup power to countless homes.

" My solar and also battery system kept my lights on as well as my family secure throughout Hurricane Fiona," said Hector Jimenez, a Sunrun customer in San Juan. "My neighbors counted on diesel to run their generators and also started to stress when fuel supply started to run low. I was able to help them out by charging up portable batteries and also providing them to individuals in the community that needed electrical energy."

"As a result of the solar panel system we mounted on the roof of our terminal after Hurricane Maria, our communications systems were powered all the time during Fiona, allowing us to reply to emergency calls," said former San Juan Metro Fire Station Lt. Francisco Cruz.

The Governing Board of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority authorized the terms of the agreement on October 26, 2022, and the agreement goes through regulatory sign-off by the Puerto Rico Energy Bureau as well as the Fiscal Oversight Management Board.