For the past six months, Australian energy retailer AGL Energy (AGL) has been engineering the initial phase of the largest residential Virtual Power Plant (VPP) in the world. The project in Adelaide, South Australia, is now live and at completion in 2018 will aggregate storage in 1,000 Australian homes into a single dynamic energy source on the grid.

AGL’s virtual power plant is the largest development of its kind. (Source: AGL)

Currently, about 60 batteries installed in homes simultaneously aggregate the battery discharge via smart software in a cloud-based platform, giving critical mass to the VPP generation capabilities. To date the VPP has produced more than 300 kW of battery capacity, with more than 200 kW of associated solar capacity. This translates into a peak output of more than half a megawatt. The VPP has also stored and delivered more than 10,000 kWh.

Participating customers are expected to save around $500 AUS per year on their energy bill. This is in addition to participants having received a battery which was subsidized by AGL. The demonstration is also proving the value of batteries in the energy transition -- offering an alternative capacity as thermal plants are phased out and supporting high penetration of renewables in the state grid.

Project partners include Sunverge Energy and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency.