Haven Energy, a climate tech company that is accelerating the adoption of home battery systems, has announced the launch of its virtual power plant (VPP), available now to all California homeowners who have energy storage. Enrolling in Haven’s VPP program will help people improve the resilience of their community, earn income from their stored energy during periods of peak demand and bring down the cost of home battery ownership. Homeowners who enroll batteries in Haven’s VPP will earn a guaranteed minimum of $125 per year.
“We are thrilled to announce the launch of our virtual power plant program, which will make home battery systems more affordable for homeowners and give people a real way to participate in building a cleaner and more resilient energy future.” said Vinnie Campo, co-founder and CEO of Haven Energy. “As batteries become mainstream, virtual power plants are key to unlocking the efficiency of energy storage, which will maximize the potential of wind and solar generation and reduce our dependence on fossil fuels.”
In July 2023, Haven Energy commissioned an online survey through AYTM of 1000 adults 18+ located in California. The survey revealed that 86% of Californians do not know what virtual power plants are, among other findings.
“Earlier this summer we undertook consumer research to better understand Californians’ awareness of home battery systems — of the state, federal, and utility incentives available to reduce the costs of battery ownership – and of virtual power plants,” said Jeff Chapin, co-founder of Haven Energy. “While it was no surprise that nearly 9 in 10 Californians are unaware of VPPs, our experience has made it clear that by simplifying the homeowner experience and making enrollment easy, people will participate. The more we educate consumers about the benefits of VPPs, the faster we can transform the energy grid to a cleaner system for everyone.”
A VPP is a network of small distributed electrical appliances, like home batteries, solar panels, heat pumps and smart thermostats, that communicate with the power grid. The VPP is called a “virtual” power plant because it does not involve a physical power plant or centralized power generation facility. Instead, this collection of distributed appliances can provide variable generation and consumption to help keep the electric grid balanced. When electricity demand is very high, enrolled customers can earn extra income for drawing power from their battery instead of the grid, or by exporting their stored battery energy back to the grid.
Haven Energy’s VPP is a provider of the California Energy Commission (CEC) Demand Side Grid Support (DSGS) Program, which offers incentives to electric utility customers that have backup generation, including energy storage. The DSGS program runs from May 1 to October 31 and was designed to help reduce the risk of rotating power outages. To be eligible, customers must have storage paired with net-energy metering (NEM) solar or stand-alone storage.
Home battery systems provided through Haven can be paired with previously installed solar panels or charge directly from the grid, and they provide backup power in case of emergencies. A 10-kWh battery can power the basic operations of a house for at least 24 hours. Software provided by the company will automatically switch a home to draw from its stored energy reserves during an outage and can reduce electricity bills by up to $1,600 per year per battery through optimized time-of-use (TOU) programming.
News item from Haven Energy
