Centrica and sonnen have installed a network of 100 domestic batteries to form the UK's most advanced Virtual Power Plant.

The network of decentralized home energy storage systems has been approved by National Grid allowing the batteries to be aggregated in a cloud platform in order to provide Dynamic Firm Frequency Response (FFR) - selling storage space when the grid is overloaded or providing stored energy during periods of peak demand.

It allows customers to maximize the amount of solar generated electricity in their home, reducing their energy bills whilst contributing to the stability and sustainability of the UK's electricity system.

"The digital energy transformation, towards a clean energy system, is taking place all over the world and our technology is an important key to its success," said Jean-Baptiste Cornefert, Managing Director, sonnen eServices. "sonnen is the first provider in the UK to prequalify with a virtual power plant of decentralized home storage systems. Every megawatt provided across the network replaces one that would have been generated by conventional fossil fuel power stations."

The two companies are working together to build on the existing 100 sonnenBatterie systems, to provide even more storage capacity for grid stabilization in the future.

Background

Whilst home batteries are becoming ever more popular with consumers and Virtual Power Plants are increasingly being used by energy companies to manage their energy portfolios and systems in a more sustainable and cost efficient way, the collaboration between Centrica and sonnen demonstrates how networks of home batteries can work hand in hand with large scale batteries and other flexible industrial equipment to build a VPP that maximizes the value of its component parts, without sacrificing other benefits of the equipment or causing excessive utilization.

This has been achieved by combining Centrica's FlexPond^TM software platform with sonnen's capabilities to build virtual communities of home batteries, with the companies teaming up to deploy advanced algorithms and AI that can orchestrate how and when to charge and discharge batteries or how and when to turn up or down flexible electricity consuming devices in near-real time.

Centrica currently operates 2.5GW of Virtual Power Plants in Europe, North America and Asia through its Centrica Business Solutions division and announced in September of 2019 that it had adapted its software platform to include residential devices such as smart electric hot water tanks from start-up, Mixergy.