A Virtual Power Plant is a platform that digitally connects thousands, and soon millions, of household’s electric appliances and other 'assets'.
What is a Virtual Power Plant (VPP)?
A virtual power plant or VPP combines equipment or assets installed at users homes or businesses with a digital platform such as an app to create a network of connected assets.
These assets can include things such as electric vehicles (EVs), batteries, heat pumps and solar PV panels. By creating a connection between these assets, they are able to form a virtual network or power plant that can be switched on or off as a collective.
These assets can then be used to support the national electricity grid by helping to provide a form of flexibility, helping to maintain stability and providing a more efficient operation during peak times. They can do this by reducing large amounts of demand on the grid during peak times or when the grid is under pressure by collectively switching off.
This in turn allows greater integration of renewable energy while ensuring energy supply to all households and businesses for their daily activities, in the most cost-efficient way for everyone.
Where does equiwatt fit in?
equiwatt uses a combination of hardware and software, in the form of smart devices – such as smart plugs and electric vehicles to create a network or VPP of connected assets.
Our app enables all of these smart devices in the network to be used as an energy-saving tool. During peak times, our community of users receive a notification to let them know that we are going to switch off their smart plugs or pause the charging of their EV for an hour during events that we call 'equivents'.
Our users can then decide whether they want to take part in the equivent by either leaving us to automatically manage their appliance or EV or manually switch their appliances off themselves and logging it in the app. Alternatively, they can opt-out of automatic participation by overriding their appliances participation in the event via the app.
When a user participates in the equivent, they not only save money by having their appliance (e.g. a fridge/freezer) or EV charging switched off or paused for a short amount of time (usually an hour) but they also reduce their carbon footprint by reducing the need for fossil fuel backup power plants being switched on to meet demand.
However, the best bit is that every user who participates in an equivent will either earn points depending on how much energy and CO2 they helped to save or if they are a manual user, an entry into the monthly prize draw to win £20 worth of points. These points can then be redeemed in the app for a range of rewards from eGift cards and smart tech to planting trees and donating to charities. Not a bad way to do your bit for the planet hey?
equiwatt truly believes that this smart, innovative and low carbon solution is the future of energy for Great Britain and worldwide!