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Utility pauses VPP program after Swell shutdown news

Utility pauses VPP program after Swell shutdown news
(Premier Gardens Zero Energy Home Community in Sacramento. Credit: SMUD)

The Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) has “temporarily” paused its Partners+ virtual power plant (VPP) program it launched in collaboration with Swell Energy, following news that Swell is shutting down.

“We’ve temporarily paused the program for new enrollments and are working to quickly transition the program delivery to re-open it soon,” a SMUD spokesperson said. “In the meantime, we’re committed to honoring all existing commitments and enrollment incentives to current program participants.”

In 2023, SMUD launched Partners+, a collaboration with Swell Energy that was intended to scale from 20 MWh and 10 MW to 54 MWh and 27 MW over the 6-12 year program. Swell enrolled customers, conducted market outreach to local installers, aggregated and operated the fleet of systems, and paid customer incentives.

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However, earlier this week, Latitude Media reported that Swell Energy, a virtual power plant (VPP) provider that collaborated with multiple utilities, is shutting down just months after it acquired solar and storage installer Renu Energy. Although the company has not officially announced the end, several former employees spoke with Latitude Media, alleging that Swell began a series of layoffs after acquiring Renu. Swell Energy is now liquidating its assets, Latitude Media reports.

Partners+, SMUD’s solar & storage VPP was largely motivated by the utility’s Carbon Zero 2030 plan, according to a new report from RMI.

The program had targets of 10 MW and 1,500 customer enrollments by 2025. Customers received an up-front incentive of $250/kWh, up to $2,500, in addition to ongoing quarterly performance payments based on system size and year of enrollment. Customers had to participate for a minimum of one year to receive the up-front incentives, and had to enroll in the solar and storage rate and time-of-day rates.

The program included 1 event per day, up to 240 events per year. Event duration could last up to 4 hours per day, and events were scheduled based on dynamic responses to day-ahead signals.

The Partners+ program falls under the umbrella of SMUD’s My Energy Optimizer program, which enables subset programs between batteries and thermostats to to allow SMUD to provide an incentive approach that lets customers choose their level of participation. The program also provided SMUD with performance data that it used to optimize resource planning and operationally optimize dispatch over the entire year, according to the RMI report.

Originally published in POWERGRID International.