Puerto Rico’s sole electrical utility supplier, Puerto Rico Electrical Energy Authority (PREPA), has chosen Sunrun because the set up firm and battery supplier for the island’s first digital energy plant (VPP). The 17-MW VPP will community collectively greater than 7,000 Sunrun photo voltaic + storage programs put in on properties.
“Puerto Ricans are able to make the transfer to dependable unbiased clear power options that can improve their sense of security and safety in their very own properties,” mentioned Sunrun CEO Mary Powell. “We’re fixing power insecurity on the island by switching the mannequin in order that photo voltaic power is generated on rooftops and saved in batteries to energy every dwelling, after which shared with neighbors, making a clear shared power economic system. That manner, residents not solely have management over their power at dwelling, however also can share energy with their neighborhood and be compensated for it.”
Sunrun will spend the subsequent yr enrolling prospects into this system and start networked dispatches in 2024. Prospects will profit from the fee financial savings of on-site power technology and backup energy and also will be compensated in trade for strategically sharing their saved power with Puerto Rico’s energy grid, making a shared clear power economic system. Batteries enrolled within the VPP will proceed sustaining satisfactory backup reserves to energy by potential grid outages at members’ properties. All prospects with batteries are additionally eligible to enroll and might choose out at any level throughout the 10-year program.
In 2019, two years after Hurricane Maria dismantled the island’s electrical grid, the Puerto Rico Power Public Coverage Act was handed by the Legislature to set the parameters for a forward-looking power system that maximizes distributed technology. The Puerto Rico Power Bureau (PREB) decided that VPPs have been key to reaching the laws’s objectives of constructing a resilient and sturdy power system and assembly Puerto Rico’s renewable portfolio requirements.
Coupled with growing utility charges — a few of the highest in the USA — and reliance on the previous, poorly maintained fossil gas energy crops, Puerto Rico has seen a transformational shift away from an unreliable power system, with tens of hundreds of Puerto Ricans now with rooftop photo voltaic and batteries. Earlier this fall, Hurricane Fiona knocked out the island’s energy grid, leaving greater than three million residents at the hours of darkness. Sunrun prospects on the island have been capable of energy by the prolonged outages. Sunrun photo voltaic + battery programs supplied greater than 350,000 hours of backup energy to hundreds of properties.
“My photo voltaic and battery system stored my lights on and my household protected throughout Hurricane Fiona,” mentioned Hector Jimenez, a Sunrun buyer in San Juan. “My neighbors relied on diesel to run their mills and began to fret when gas provide started to run low. I used to be capable of assist them out by charging up transportable batteries and lending them to individuals in the neighborhood who wanted electrical energy.”
“Due to the photo voltaic battery system we put in on the roof of our station after Hurricane Maria, our communications programs have been powered all night time and day throughout Fiona, enabling us to reply to emergency calls,” mentioned former San Juan Metro Hearth Station Lt. Francisco Cruz.
The Governing Board of the Puerto Rico Electrical Energy Authority authorized the phrases of the settlement on October 26, 2022, and the settlement is topic to regulatory sign-off by the Puerto Rico Power Bureau and the Fiscal Oversight Administration Board.
Information merchandise from Sunrun
