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https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20260928-a-virtual-power-plant-hidden-in-vermont-homes-is-keeping-the-lights-on-during-storms>
“Vermont has faced an increase in extreme weather events in recent decades,
including some of its worst storms in recorded history. For Pollyanna Bladyka,
such events used to mean losing power a dozen times every year, often for
multiple hours.
"I don't mind being cold… but I just want my coffee in the morning and I want
to be able to watch my news," says Bladyka, who lives in the rural town of
Springfield in eastern Vermont with her husband Andy and her dog.
Bladyka became so fed up with the frequent power outages that in 2024 she was
on the verge of buying a gas generator, as many of her neighbours had already
done. But the electrician she hired to install it told her about a programme
providing a compelling alternative.
Run by Vermont's largest utility, Green Mountain Power (GMP), the scheme
installs two batteries in participants' home for $55 (£41) a month over a
10-year lease agreement. After doing some research, Bladyka and her husband
decided it was a better option than the $12,000 (£9,000) cost of the generator
they had planned to buy. They have not lost power a single time since the
system was installed in 2024.
More than 5,500 people in Vermont have similar home battery systems. As well as
providing individual homes energy security during power outages, these
batteries form the backbone of a new kind of system known as a virtual power
plant that mimics the resources of a traditional power plant.
The US now has over 40GW of virtual power plant capacity, according to internal
analysis by Wood Mackenzie. It's still relatively small compared to the roughly
600GW of natural gas and 200GW of coal, but a total of 160GW of capacity could
be unlocked by 2030, according to a 2025 US Department of Energy report – equal
to some 20% of the country's expected peak energy demand.
Through GMP's programme, its virtual power plant has quietly become Vermont's
biggest source of power. Now, the state is testing how far this "hidden" form
of power can go.”
Via Susan ****
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*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
