Vermont replacing power plants with home batteries(bbc.com)
384 points by devonnull 14 days ago | 300 comments
tl;dr: Vermont's largest utility, Green Mountain Power, leases two home batteries to customers for $55/month, aggregating 5,500+ installations into a virtual power plant that's now the state's biggest power source and has replaced most of its fossil-fuel peaker plants. The system saved customers $11M last year and provides outage protection, with GMP aiming to offer storage to all 300,000 customers and eventually tap EV batteries via vehicle-to-grid. Nationally, virtual power plants could save $10B+ annually by 2030, though utility incentive structures remain a barrier to broader adoption.
HN Discussion:
  • ↑Similar virtual power plant programs exist elsewhere and work well for participants
  • ↓Utilities exploit customers by charging for batteries while using them as distributed infrastructure
  • ~Technical concerns about battery efficiency losses and whether the economics truly scale
  • ~Regulatory and building code barriers make adoption impractical for many homeowners
  • ↑Home and grid-scale battery storage is a promising idea worth expanding