11,000 home solar batteries to add 30MW to electricity grid

Ara Ake and SolarZero are collaborating on an innovative winter 2023 peak solution for electricity -enabling 30MW of additional network capacity on-demand.

Hailed as a world-leading pilot project, it will see Kiwis with solar and battery systems contribute to New Zealand electricity supply reliability.

About 11,000 homes with state-of-the-art virtual power plant (VPP) technology will help manage winter peak demand.

The solar batteries throughout New Zealand will provide their capacity to the electricity market system operated by Transpower and can be called on when there are potential electricity shortages.

The result adds up to 30MW (roughly the same amount of power consumed by 30,000 homes) back into the grid.

SolarZero’s batteries take two hours to fully charge.

“It’s great to see this kind of collaboration take place,” says energy and resources minister Megan Woods.

“These kinds of initiatives help to create a more sustainable and resilient energy system, which is crucial as we decarbonise and future-proof our economy.”

The pilot will be the first to utilise real-time pricing changes introduced by the Electricity Authority in April this year that enable sector participants to bid and offer their demand flexibility and ‘distributed energy resources’ into the wholesale market with more certainty.

“This is one of the most innovative and globally significant,projects seen in the electricity industry in recent times,” says SolarZero chief executive Matt Ward.

“We’re entering a new era of energy in which households are active enablers of a smarter, greener and cheaper power system.”

The pilot between Ara Ake and SolarZero will demonstrate how energy generated and stored by residential solar and battery systems can participate within the electricity market, build greater understanding within the energy industry of the capabilities required to facilitate a secure electricity supply, provide evidence to help evolve the electricity market by utilising distributed energy resources to manage peak demand, and give insight into the role that households could play in balancing supply and demand, while potentially saving consumers money on electricity bills.

“This project demonstrates, at scale, the contribution that our own distributed energy resources can play in managing winter peaks, and it’s a great example of the convergence between innovation and collaboration,” says Ara Ake chief executive Cristiano Marantes, adding that insights from the pilot will inform future projects.

Transpower operations general manager Stephen Jay says electricity markets around the world are facing challenges meeting peak demand as they transition towards an increasingly renewable future,.

“We’ve been signalling this challenge for some time as we have integrated more intermittent renewable generation into our system.

“This initiative will make a small but significant difference meeting peak demand now and will help drive the transition towards the more flexible, distributed and renewable power system of the future.”

Electricity Authority chief executive Sarah Gillies says the new market tool will help pave the way to an increasingly renewables future,