A new program from Irving-based TXU Energy, in partnership with San Francisco’s Sunrun, will support grid reliability for Texans. The program was announced by Vistra, TXU’s parent company.
The TXU Energy & Sunrun Battery Rewards program will aggregate power stored in residential, solar-connected batteries, forming a virtual power plant to dispatch energy back to the grid when it’s needed the most, Vistra said.
“Since we introduced solar net metering to Texans 15 years ago, rooftop solar has seen significant growth, marked by over $10 million in solar buyback credits paid to our customers last year alone,” Sam Sen, Vistra’s VP of energy transition solutions, said in a statement. “With the growing population and increasing demand on the grid, harnessing the collective power of home solar panels and batteries is an important expansion of our distributed energy initiatives.”
Financial incentives for customers with Sunrun solar panels and batteries
TXU Energy said that customers who opt into the program and have installed Sunrun home solar panels and batteries will receive financial incentives for their participation while retaining control of their systems during power outages or severe weather conditions. TXU said that those customers can continue to benefit from its solar buyback plans, which credit solar energy system owners for the electricity they add to the grid.
In the partnership, San Francisco-based Sunrun will network customers’ batteries together and seamlessly manage the discharging of stored solar power to the grid, Vistra said.
Vistra said that with 1 million customers and more than 116,000 installed storage systems, Sunrun has a track record of incentivizing customers to support local power grids. Sunrun operates more than a dozen power plants across the country, including the largest single-owner virtual power plant program, Vistra noted.
“We’re excited to partner with Vistra to bring Sunrun’s virtual power plant expertise to Texas,” Sunrun CEO Mary Powell said in a statement. “Pairing residential batteries with solar is a smart choice in the Lone Star State and this program makes the decision even more financially rewarding. Our customers take pride in self-generation and sharing their energy with their community to help the overall power grid.”
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