GoodLeap LLC and the Connecticut Green Bank have partnered to orchestrate a fleet of remote-controlled, solar-powered home battery systems for grid reliability.
The aggregated solar and battery arrays will form an AI-powered virtual power plant (VPP), leveraging Connecticut's Energy Storage Solutions program, the companies said in an Aug. 13 announcement.
"We looked at bringing our expertise, our experience ... on the program design, on the consumer side [and] also on our software piece, as well as the entire ecosystem of GoodLeap," Ani Backa, the company's vice president of virtual power plants, told Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights.
GoodLeap is a software and financing specialist. Connecticut Green Bank is a quasi-public agency that has mobilized nearly $3 billion in capital.
Working with the Connecticut Green Bank, GoodLeap aims to "bring a lot more awareness to the contractor network, to make this accessible to consumers behind the meter ... to make sure that the consumer continues to receive the benefit of having solar plus storage and, at the same time, help the grid."
GoodLeap's AI-steered software, dubbed GoodGrid, will integrate with utility distributed energy resource management systems (DERMS) in a bid to reduce energy costs, improve grid resilience and advance the state's clean energy goals.
The platform manages market inputs and customer inputs, both powered by AI.
"We are at a time of unprecedented transformation," Backa said. "AI is changing the way that we think of how we orchestrate all of these systems and where we find the need. … It's also understanding where the market is headed."
AI can be a win for different groups, including businesses, consumers, utilities and the grid, Backa added.
"We have a very good bird's-eye view on how these assets actually perform," Backa said. "And we also have a very good understanding of, what do the consumers want to do when they have these assets in their own home?"
Such aggregated distributed energy assets can help to reduce peak demand, which could help avoid a blackout. Participating consumers would receive compensation for their contributions.
The VPP with DERMS will help cut peak demand and avoid expensive infrastructure upgrades, according to GoodLeap.
The Connecticut project builds on the company's VPPs in Texas, California and other states.
"From a VPP perspective, we're getting up and running, with California being an established market," Backa said. "We've made the foray into the Connecticut market, and we're looking at expanding a lot further."
