Lunar Gridshare and Ava Community Energy partner to launch Ava's Virtual Power Plant initiative
Ava Community Energy (Ava) announced the launch of its comprehensive Virtual Power Plant (VPP) strategy. VPPs are systems that aggregate distributed energy resources (DERS), such as electric vehicles and home batteries, so they can be controlled remotely to enhance grid reliability and lower costs.
With this new VPP program, Ava seeks to help:
- Customers get the most out of their energy investments, by optimizing all their connected devices against one another and against the needs of the grid, without impacting the residents' enjoyment of their home or vehicle
- Renewable energy they purchase go further, which lowers cost for all
- Relieve stress on the grid by enabling consumption or discharge of distributed resources at optimal times
Ava's plan builds on the success and learnings of its 2020 Resilient Home pilot where Ava recruited 1,200 customers to discharge their home battery during evening peak demand times for a period of ten years, lowering Ava's overall load and reducing the amount of power purchased from other sources.
"As a crucial part of our plan to get to 100% carbon-free power by 2030, we are excited to roll out our customer-centric VPP approach," said Howard Chang, CEO of Ava Community Energy. "There's a lot of discussion out there about the value of VPPs in energy markets, but there isn't much talk about the value to the customer. As a public agency with 'community' literally in our name, we're leaning into the work of determining how to share the value derived from VPPs with the customers we serve."
Ava has partnered with Lunar Energy and is using its Gridshare software platform to support the execution of this strategy. They claimed that Lunar's Distributed Energy Resource Management System (DERMS) capabilities, multi-device management and optimization expertise, and our experience operating in complex energy markets, across North America, Europe and Asia were important factors in this partnership decision.
"Ava puts their customers at the center of everything they do, and together in this partnership we'll make the grid cleaner and more efficient for all of those customers," said Lunar Energy Vice President Ed Gunn. "Energy markets are more complicated in California than ever before. Our Gridshare platform uncovers, optimizes, and automates opportunities for everyone to benefit while decarbonizing the grid."
Ava SmartHome Charging, a program for EV drivers who charge their vehicles at home, and the first pillar of Ava's VPP program, is now available. Participating customers can earn up to $100 a year in incentives plus realize savings on their charging-related energy bill. A program for residential solar and battery storage customers will follow in the Fall of 2025.
