California-based company Swell Energy reported that it had raised $120 million to expand its programs for virtual power plants (VPPs), according to Electrek. The said funding increased the company’s current total equity capitalization to $152 million,
Swell Energy to generate 600 MWh of virtual power plants
SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and Greenbacker Development Opportunities Fund I LP spearheaded the funding round.
The secured funding will enable the energy storage developer and aggregator to deploy 26,000 energy storage systems and aggregate them to create 600 MWh of VPPs.
Notably, projects across utility areas in Hawaii, California, and New York are expected to be supported by the VPPs to deliver grid service capabilities.
Purpose of the VPP programs
Remarkably, the VPP programs offered by Swell Energy assist utilities in employing fewer fossil fuel peaker plants while offering additional grid services. The utility will be integrated with solar, energy storage, and electric vehicle charging to deliver a more dependable and cleaner grid.
“By coordinating distributed energy resources across the grid to intelligently meet fluctuating demand, Swell’s AI- and machine learning-driven platform helps address a major challenge of the energy transition, while also lowering customers’ bills,” said Ben Parton, director at SoftBank Group.
On the other hand, VPP participants receive reductions in the cost of their solar energy generation and storage systems. Furthermore, it decreases the possibility of a local power outage.
It is also worth noting that Swell Energy collaborates with several Californian utilities to increase the number of households participating in capacity bidding programs.
These initiatives are attributable to California Public Utility Commission’s targets to lessen the strain on the grid during emergency power events controlled by the California Independent System Operator.
