Sunrun, a residential solar installer, has developed a virtual power plant (VPP) in Puerto Rico to enable Puerto Ricans to contribute energy from their solar-plus-storage systems to stabilize the island’s electrical grid. The PowerOn Puerto Rico program, launched in fall 2023, enrolls nearly 1,800 customers and over 2,000 batteries onto its fleet of batteries. This makes Sunrun the largest participant in the Battery Emergency Demand Response Program, which is administered by the island’s electric utility, LUMA, in response to power shortfalls. Sunrun’s battery fleet dispatches stored solar energy from customers’ batteries to stabilise the grid and avoid blackouts and the use of fossil fuel power plants. Customers are compensated at least $550 per customer, with the final level dependent on the amount of power sharing events per year. The project has been activated several times in the last week alone.
Solar Dominates US Energy Capacity Growth
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has published data showing that solar accounted for over 75% of US electrical generating
